Identity Crisis
by mystica88
Summary: This is a kind of sequel to Beyond the Fire, though could stand alone. Neeva is back and up to some old tricks. Only this time, she wasn't so lucky to have switched with Keller. And Rodney... well he has a couple of new distractions when he realizes what just happened.
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: Hello. So, this is technically a sequel to Beyond the fire, though it s completely readable without having read that one._

_As usual, still haven't forgotten about Unshaken. Just need some time yet for it._

_Disclaimer: Rodney is so lucky that I don't own Atlantis cause he'd be so screwed._

_p.s.: This is un-betaed, so if you find mistakes, please let me know so I can fix them. Thanks!_

Chapter 1

The alarm buzzed beside Rodney's ear annoyingly, drawing him out of the far too little sleep that he had been attempting to catch. He opened his mouth to grumble about it, but then remembered that there was someone else with him and he clamped his mouth closed again. Quickly, but gently, he reached out and turned the alarm off.

He laid there a moment, rubbing his face with his hand that he had just turned the alarm off with, trying to convince himself that he really did need to actually get up. A soft sigh beside him, accompanied by a warm arm around his shoulders, nearly convinced him that he could actually just stay there a little while longer.

"Shouldn't you get going, mister?" a groggy female voice whispered in his ear.

He sighed knowing Jennifer was right, but reluctant to leave both her and the potential for a few more minutes of sleep. He let a slight smile slip across his face as he really let it sink in where he was.

He and Jennifer had been together now for nearly a year, but the fact that he was waking up next to a beautiful woman that actually wanted him there was still sometimes a shock to him. He closed his eyes again and rolled over to plant a kiss on her forehead before forcing himself to get out of bed.

When he opened his eyes again, though, it wasn't Jennifer's face he saw. In fact, everything had changed. He was now standing in front of an Ancient device that he knew he should know from somewhere. He was looking across the device at tall dark skinned man in leather attire.

But before he could process anymore of his sudden change of position and surroundings, he felt his arms grabbed and roughly pulled behind his back. A sudden and painful blow connected with the back of his knees and he crumpled to the ground with a yelp.

"What's going on!?" He demanded in a voice that sounded too high pitched even for him as the person who stood behind him clamped cold metal restraints around his wrists, locking his arms behind his back. As he started to look around, he then noticed his own body. Looking down, there were two very noticeable differences to his chest.

"What the…" he started to mutter and then all the familiar sightings came back to him. The device, the man that had been staring at him… the body he was now looking at that seemed to currently be his own

_Neeva_, his mind supplied the name.

"You have got to be kidding me," he whined just moments before the other man stepped up and turned a Wraith stunner on him, knocking him out cold.

XXX

"Rodney?" Jennifer asked as she looked into the rather confused eyes of her boyfriend.

He stared back at her as if he was trying to process the sight. Finally, after a moment, he broke into a loopy grin. "Jennifer," he said to her. "I'm sorry… It's just; it's still sometimes hard to believe that you actually want to be with me."

Jennifer gave him a small giggle and planted a kiss on his lips. At first, he seemed stunned, almost reluctant, at her movement. It surprised her at first, but then he responded and returned her kiss in kind. She was the one that broke them apart and said, "You need to get going, Rodney," and gave him a little shove towards the edge of the bed.

He seemed to be quick to leave just then, which also surprised Jennifer. Normally, he was not so eager to either leave her side or to start his day, especially given the amount of sleep that he gotten last night. She wasn't sure what time it was that he had crawled into bed with her last night, but she knew that she had been asleep for a matter of hours and she had gone to bed after midnight. The alarm had been set to go off at 06:00.

She rolled over and propped herself up on one arm as she watched him retreat. She saw him glance around as if looking for something before he spied the clothes that he had laid out for himself in preparation for an early start today. Jennifer thought she heard him give a grateful sigh when he spied them and picked them up.

"Rodney, are you feeling all right?" she asked as she watched him glance around again before heading towards the bathroom on the other side of the room.

"Yes, of course," he told her quickly. "Just… I'm just still a bit tired."

She gave him a sad smile and nodded, "Of course you are. You couldn't have gotten more than, what, three, maybe four hours of sleep? You need to start taking better care of yourself, Rodney."

"Yeah… yes, I should. Just, too much to do, have to keep pushing myself, and all that," he said and started to head for the bathroom hurriedly. "Have to get ready now," he muttered as he disappeared behind the door.

Jennifer shook her head and then lay back down. She didn't have to be up for another couple of hours yet for her shift. Before she knew it, she had fallen back asleep, worry about how Rodney was acting forgotten as she drifted off. But the last thought that she had before her groggy mind slipped to unconsciousness was, _was he swaying his hips_?

XXX

"How the hell did I wind up in him?" Neeva muttered to herself as she stared into the mirror at Rodney's face. "Damn it," she said as she turned away from the mirror and the disturbing sight of a face that wasn't hers.

She looked down at her new body and sighed, "Not exactly a great show either." She looked up suddenly as another thought struck her. "And that means he's in my body! Great!"

She heard a shifting in the other room as the gentle snoring Keller had been making broke for a second. Neeva froze and listened carefully until she could hear that snoring again.

"Ok," she whispered to herself as she turned around and stared at Rodney's face in the mirror again. "I can do this… in fact, he might be better. He can fly one of those ships after all… Yes, this can still work."

She frowned slightly before she stood up straight and nodded once to herself. "Yes, I can still do this," she repeated and then turned around again and got dressed for the day.

XXX

"Colonel Sheppard," Woolsey's voice crackled in Sheppard's ear.

Sheppard held up a hand to Ronon, halting their sparing match. John was actually a little grateful to Woolsey for interrupting when he did because he was certain he was about to have his butt handed to him, again, by the big guy.

"Go ahead," Sheppard responded as he tapped his earwig.

"Colonel, have you seen Dr. McKay today?" Woolsey asked.

"No," Sheppard replied as he looked up while contemplating the question. "I thought that he was supposed to have a meeting with you and a few of the other science guys about the city defense systems this morning?"

"He was," Woolsey said and Sheppard could hear the frown in his voice. "But he never showed up and hasn't responded to his radio."

Sheppard frowned and glanced at Ronon. Ronon immediately got that something was wrong and stiffened, ready to go into action. "Have Zelenka track him with the city sensors," Sheppard said. "Ronon and I will check on a few of his usual haunts in the meant time."

"I just called Dr. Zelenka here to do so," Woolsey confirmed.

"Ok, did you check with Keller?" he asked.

"Yes. Dr. Keller said that she saw him get up early this morning, but fell asleep before he left. But he was gone when she got up."

Sheppard frowned a little more deeply at that. That meant that Rodney had at least not overslept and had intended on going to the meeting. "Ok," he said. "We'll head out and see if we can find him. Let me know if Zelenka comes up with anything."

"Agreed, Colonel. Good luck."

Sheppard tabbed his radio off and turned to head out of the gym. Ronon was close behind him. "It seems we're on McKay retrieval this morning, buddy," Sheppard said as he led them into the hall.

"He get lost?" Ronon asked.

"Not sure. He didn't show up for a meeting with Woolsey this morning and no one seems to know where he went."

Ronon simply nodded and increased his pace, overtaking the Colonel and taking the lead. "I'll check the mess, you his lab," Ronon said.

Sheppard nodded, "My thoughts exactly. I'll let you know if Zelenka turns anything up on the tracking system."

Ronon nodded again and turned down the next hall. As soon as he was alone in the hall, Sheppard decided that it wouldn't hurt to try the radio himself. He reached up and tapped his communicator. "McKay, come in," he said.

There was no response. He sighed and shook his head as he continued on to the lab. It was unlikely that someone would have missed Rodney being there as it should be the first place that anyone would check for the scientist. Still, it was also the first place Rodney would return to if he had been elsewhere when the lab was first checked.

As luck would have it, Sheppard turned the corner just as Rodney was leaving the lab with something in his arms. "Rodney!" Sheppard called and hurried up to meet him.

Rodney came to a sudden halt and looked up at Sheppard. John thought he saw a brief moment of panic on the man's face but was quickly replaced with a welcoming smile. "John, hey. Kind of busy right now…"

"Doing what?" Sheppard asked as he eyed the device in Rodney's arms. He didn't recognize it, but it was obviously Ancient. "You missed your meeting with Woolsey this morning and haven't responded to your radio. You've had a bunch of us pretty worried."

"Oh… Sorry about that," Rodney said as he turned and started to walk down the hall, forcing Sheppard to walk with him. "I guess I forgot my radio this morning. It was pretty early and I… I didn't get much sleep last night."

"Yeah, but what else is new?" Sheppard asked as he put out a hand and grabbed Rodney's arm to keep him from going any further. "What's going on, McKay?" he asked as he was surprised with the way Rodney's muscles had jerked at his touch. It was almost as if he was about to strike back at Sheppard, but that couldn't have been it.

"Nothing," Rodney replied. "I just forgot about the meeting and left my radio in my room. I've got… I'm working on a new project and got… sidetracked is all."

Sheppard frowned. Well that certainly sounded like McKay. He could get entirely engulfed in his work at times. That was usually why he didn't get as much sleep as he probably should. More often than not, Sheppard could find Rodney passed out at his computer in his lab in the mornings than in his quarters whenever he wanted to drag the scientist to a team breakfast.

The Colonel eyed Rodney closely for a second before he said, "Well why don't you go back to your quarters and get your radio and then report to Woolsey? You know how he gets when his schedule is interrupted. Then I'm sure you can return to whatever you're working on."

McKay nodded, "Yeah. I'll do that. I just need to take this…"

"…No, put it back in your lab and get the radio now," Sheppard said firmly. "You know the protocol. Anything can happen around here and you know, as well as I do, how you don't want to be caught without it if something were to go down."

"Ah, yeah. Right… I'll do that. Sorry, John." He turned then and walked back to the lab and put the device inside. Sheppard watched him as he started to head back towards his quarters.

"McKay," Sheppard called.

"Yeah?" he said turning around and facing Sheppard again.

"Maybe cut back on the coffee a little. You seem even tenser than usual today."

Rodney nodded and said, "Yeah, lack of sleep. I guess I should probably cut back." He turned then and hurried around the corner.

Sheppard sighed and turned around to head for the control room. He tapped his communicator and said, "Woolsey?"

"Yes Colonel?"

"I found him. He got sidetracked with whatever new do-hicky he's working on. I sent him to get his radio and then report to you."

There was a pause on the other end before Woolsey said, "Dr. Zelenka just informed me that he doesn't know of any new project Dr. McKay is currently working on."

Sheppard stopped mid step. "Well he does have various pet projects, right?" he asked.

Zelenka's voice was one that responded. "Yes, Rodney is always working on something," the Czech confirmed. "But I do not believe he currently has anything that would have distracted him from today's meeting. He's been working very hard on improving city defenses and has been preparing for meeting all week."

"Ok," Sheppard said as he turned around and headed towards Rodney's quarters instead. "I'll catch up with him again and see what's really going on."

"Colonel," Woolsey said over the radio again. "Maybe Dr. McKay should report to the infirmary. If he's having memory issues again…"

"Yeah, I'm on it," Sheppard said quickly, not wanting to even think about having to go through that again. "Zelenka, did you find him on the sensors?" Sheppard asked.

"Ah, no," Zelenka replied. "For some reason his transmitter is not appearing on the scanners."

Sheppard really didn't like the sound of that. "All right, thanks, Radek," he replied and hurried his steps.

"Ronon," he spoke into his radio.

"Find him?" the big man asked.

"Yeah. I sent him to his quarters to get his radio, but I'm a little worried about him still. Meet me there, ok?"

"On it," was the simple response.

They both hurried to meet up with their wayward scientist, hoping that he would actually be where he was supposed to be this time.

XXX

Rodney groaned as he came to. "God," he muttered. "I hate those things." He rolled over and found that his hands were still secured behind his back. He was even more disconcerted to find that his ankles were now tied together. Looking around, he saw that he was also inside a small, barred cell.

"A little overkill, don't you think?" he spoke to the empty room. But the sound of his voice reminded him again of the situation.

He looked down at himself again and sighed. "Great, now I'm in her body. I certainly hope that I'm not about to be hauled off to execution again."

"Not this time, doctor," a voice said from the darkened hallway outside his cell.

Rodney craned his head and noticed the tall black man entering from the end of the hallway. "Hold on," he said. "You're the one Jennifer said was about to kill her. We thought Neeva was dead because of you."

He scowled and said, "She was lucky and was able to grab the gun before I fired. I only shot the trees before she was able to _convince_ me that she was herself again."

"Huh," McKay said and then shook that useless information off. "Look," he said as he tried to shift into a better position to keep an eye on the man. "I don't know what you guys are up to, but it's not going to work. I'm pretty sure they're going to realize that it's not me."

"Oh, don't worry, doctor," the man replied. Rodney wished he could remember this guy's name, but it just wasn't coming to him. "Neeva's been working on that medical thing for a while now. She's got a plan to fit in just long enough to grab some real nice goods and get out of there with your next scheduled visit to the Athosians tomorrow."

"My next… Medical…?" Rodney mumbled. Then he broke into a grin. "So you think I'm Jennifer again?"

"Dr. Jennifer Keller," the man replied with a grin.

Rodney couldn't help but laugh. "Oh, you are so screwed. You messed it up. She didn't switch with Keller again. She transferred with me, Dr. Rodney McKay. She's got no clue how to fit in with my role."

The man scowled and shook his head. "No, she was supposed to switch with Keller again. That's how it works."

"Noooo. It switches with whoever the last person to touch the stone was. And I was the last one to work with them, trying to find out if there was a way to deactivate them so this wouldn't happen again." He frowned slightly then and said, "Apparently I wasn't as successful with that as I had hoped."

"You're lying," the man spat at Rodney as he drew the stunner and aimed it through the bars at him.

"Why would I do that?!" he squeaked as he wiggled himself further back into the cell away from the threatening man. "What could I gain from telling you that you switched with the wrong person?"

"You're trying to get us to turn it off, to switch you back now, hoping she doesn't get caught."

"No, I…" Rodney thought about it a moment. "Wait, did you figure out how to actually turn it off? I mean, without blowing it up or something?"

"That's none of your business," the man said as he tucked the stunner away again and turned to leave.

"Wait, I swear I'm telling you the truth," Rodney said hurriedly. "And, I didn't bring it up for that, but you're right. The best way to save your friend from being caught again is to switch us back now. I have no idea where we are, so it's not like we can track you down or anything."

"Good night, Dr. Keller," the man said. "Neeva should be back here tomorrow and we can switch you back then. Of course, you'll be back in your body so we can simply dispose of you then."

He turned around and flashed a sickly smile at Rodney and said, "Pleasant dreams." He disappeared around the hallway again and the resounding sound of a door slamming shut followed him.

"Oh, this is so not good…" Rodney muttered into the darkness.

XXX

Keller had been a little anxious when she heard that Rodney wasn't responding to his radio. She was in her office working on paper work as she didn't currently have any patients… miracle of miracles… But she had been distracted ever since Woolsey had contacted her. She kept wondering if maybe she ought to set aside her work for now and see if she could find Rodney herself.

Then she would remember that Woolsey had said he would ask Colonel Sheppard to look into it and if anyone would have better luck tracking down Rodney than her, it would be Sheppard. The man seemed to 'get,' Rodney better than anyone else, including her. She may be dating and living with the scientist, but he still baffled her at times.

She sighed to herself for what seemed like the hundredth time and returned to her paperwork again. That was when she heard a noise out in the infirmary. It wasn't much, but it was out of the ordinary so she stood and poked her head out of her office. She was quite surprised to see her wayward boyfriend inside one of the supposedly locked medical cabinets, searching through the medications.

"Rodney?" she asked as she came out and approached him.

The speed that he whiped around to face her caught her off guard. There was something in his movements that didn't seem right. And it wasn't just that he was obviously trying to cover up his guilty expression with grin that looked all wrong.

"Rodney, what's… going on?" she asked haltingly as she drew nearer.

"Nothing," he said quickly. "I was just… Teyla had asked me if could ask you for some more sleeping pills. I didn't see you here and I didn't want to bother you…"

"Rodney, that cabinet was locked," Jennifer said, pointing to thing behind him.

"Really? I don't think so," he said glancing back at it. "I just opened it."

Jennifer frowned as she was certain that she had been the last one in it and she had locked it behind her. "I was sure…" she muttered as she walked up to the cabinet.

"Oh, you probably just forgot. It happens to the best of us," he said with another uncharacteristic grin. She eyed him as she drew closer. But when she was standing next to him, she turned her attention to the cabinet and examined the lock. It didn't look tampered with and lord knows Rodney was not a lock picker… at least, not one that wasn't controlled by a computer. If he had tried to tamper with the lock, she was certain there would be obvious evidence of it.

She gave the lock one last close appraising look before turning back to Rodney. She thought that she saw some quick movement of his hand but didn't see what it was. "Rodney, you know that only medical personnel are allowed to access the medicine cabinets," she chastised.

"Oh, well… I just figured such a minor pill wouldn't be that important and when I found the cabinet unlocked…"

She sighed and shook her head at him. "You're impossible," she said with a grin as she placed a hand on his chest and leaned up to kiss him.

For a moment it looked as if he was hesitant to meet her kiss but then he quickly leaned down and met her lips. She was a little startled to find his lips open and was quickly pulled into a much deeper kiss than she had been intending. It wasn't rare that he would balk at PDA's so the fact he had been hesitant didn't seem odd. What was strange was his sudden zeal. This was a side of him that she only saw when they were alone in their quarters. And even then it was when he wasn't completely distracted with some project or other and that was once in a blue moon in itself.

When he pulled back, she was left rather breathless. "Oh, well…" she said, clearing her throat. "That was…"

He frowned at her, "Didn't you like it?" he asked.

"Oh, yes!" she said with a little more zest than she had intended. She cleared her throat again and continued more subdued. "I mean, yes, that was quiet nice, Rodney. I'm just wondering where that came from."

"I told you this morning," he said with a smile. "I'm just surprised that you would want to be with me and I don't want to chance losing you."

She felt herself flush as she smiled at him and then backed away. "Oh Rodney, like you could get rid of me," she said with a wink and then turned to walk back to her office. She paused after a few steps and turned back, seeing a rather relieved looking Rodney standing there. "Just, ask me next time before getting into the medicine. Ok?"

He nodded, "Of course," he said.

She giggled to herself again and went back to her office. It wasn't until she sat back down at her desk that she even thought to ask him about where he had been that morning. She got up and went back out, but he was gone again.

Tapping her radio she said, "Keller to McKay?"

But there was no response. She frowned and then tapped her radio again. "Keller to Sheppard."

"What's up Doc?" Sheppard replied quickly.

Jennifer ignored the annoying quote and dove right into the reason she was calling. "John, have you seen Rodney?"

"I just sent him to your quarters a few minutes ago. I'm heading there now to ask him to go see you. Why?"

"Oh, well, you're not going to find him there because he was just here."

"What?" Sheppard snapped. Jennifer could almost hear him halt in mid step. "What the hell was he doing there?"

"He said that Teyla asked him to get some more sleeping pills from me. But come to think of it, he left without them."

She heard Sheppard mutter something under his breath that she suspected was some kind of curse. "Jennifer," he said after a second. "Stay there and let me know immediately if he turns up there again, all right?"

"Okay," she said hesitantly. "But what's going on, John?"

He sighed across the radio and replied, "I'm not sure but he's been acting kind of odd today and I just want to make sure that he's ok. I'll let you know if I find him again."

"Alright. Thanks, John."

"Sheppard out."

Jennifer sighed and sat down in her office chair, angled so she could see out into the infirmary. She couldn't imagine what was wrong. Rodney had seemed maybe a little on edge when she first found him, but he didn't seem too odd. At least, not for Rodney. But right now, Sheppard was right. It was probably best to just stay there in case he came back. That way she wouldn't have the chance of missing him and John promised to tell her if they found him. So, for now, she would simply wait and hope that nothing was wrong with her boyfriend.

XXX

Neeva could have screamed with how difficult this was. The first time she had switched bodies with a Lantian she had been taken completely by surprised and didn't understand what was happening. This time, she had prepared. She knew what she was getting into and had thought that she was going to be able to pull it off. But of course, something had to go wrong. How the hell she wound up in the annoying scientist's body was a mystery to her.

And at first, she thought it was just a minor setback that she could recover from. It didn't take much to find this guy's lab. All she had to do was find one of those other scientists of his and bully them to get something from his lab and then discretely follow. No doubt when that poor guy returned with whatever she had sent him after and couldn't find her, he would have a breakdown.

Once there, it wasn't too difficult to modify the original plan to deactivate the tracker that all Atlantians wore. Learning of that little piece of knowledge had taken some work and more than a little alcohol to discover. Once known though, it didn't take much more to figure out how to deactivate it. A small electrical charge applied across the space it was located would short it out. There was no shortage of items to choose from here to create that charge.

That had been the easy part. After she had done that and shook the numbness out of her arm and made sure it was covered by her sleeve, then came the problem that she didn't know what was valuable there. She had been studying for the last year to know what would be of the most value from the infirmary as she had planned that to be where she was expected to be. Now she was in a room full of technology that she didn't know anything about or understand in the least. But that was only a minor hiccup.

This was the city of the Ancestors. That meant that anything from here would be valuable to someone. True, medicine and medical equipment would have been more universal, but she was sure anything she could grab that was obviously of Ancestor design would fetch a hearty price.

Luckily, she already knew where the Jumper Bay was from her last little stint on Atlantis. Now that was certainly going to be useful. Having her own spaceship with the ability to cloak was well worth any difficulty that her mission encountered. And that also meant she was going to be able to make off with far more than she had originally intended.

Knowing where the lab was and knowing where the Jumpers were was all she needed as she began to haul items from one to the other. But, of course, she had only moved a few things when everything had to go wrong again. That pushy Colonel suddenly turned up. If she hadn't been studying the Atlantis team ever since she had last encountered them, she was sure she would have forgotten this guy's name.

And of course, it turns out that she had to switch into McKay's body on the morning he was supposed to be in some important meeting. But, she was always good at thinking on her feet and after she managed to not knock Sheppard into the other wall when he touched her, she spun a lie that sounded like the scientist. Little was actually known about the guy in her research as he was not as interactive with other planets. But between her brief firsthand experience and what little she could find out, she thought she had a fairly convincing performance.

Of course she wasn't about to return to those quarters as instructed. She was off radio on purpose and had far too much to accomplish in her short amount of time here to play Sheppard's games. He couldn't track her and he couldn't contact her so, in theory, he could be avoided.

But now that she had been caught in the lab, it probably wouldn't do to keep returning to it. So, since she already knew what she needed in the infirmary, why not go there? Apparently she was still in a relationship with the doctor so it wouldn't be too out of ordinary to be going there, surely.

She had barely gotten in there and picked the lock on the first cabinet than said girlfriend turned up. She could have swore when Keller came up on her. How she hated that body and still, she longed to have been in it rather than this out of shape, balding man that was almost impossible to accurately impersonate.

Keller was there, asking why she had gotten into the cupboard. Luckily it didn't take her too long to come up with a convincing lie. It was good that she had gained as much knowledge of the other people on Atlantis as she did. Anything else would have never been believable.

When Keller turned her back, Neeva considered how easy it would be to just get rid of her. The girlfriend was probably going to be the first one to spot a change and that was dangerous. She had just started to reach for the blade that she had picked up in the lab that was now concealed in her pocket when Keller turned back around.

She changed her mind in that instant and hid the weapon again. She remembered that attacking someone last time is what had gotten her caught. She needed to be more careful this time and avoid such complications. But she needed to throw Keller off balance to keep from questioning.

It was when Keller leaned up for a kiss that she realized how to do that. Of course this wasn't her cup of tea, but she did know how to get a girl riled up enough to forget everything else at least for a few minutes; and that was all she needed to make her escape from the infirmary.

It worked, Keller was thrown off balance and she was able to make a hasty retreat. But now what the hell was she supposed to do? She couldn't go back to the infirmary. The lab was too risky now… what else of value could she pilfer and make off to the Jumper with before she really made her escape?

And that was when she saw the Athosian woman heading in her direction with her son balanced on her hip…

"Rodney," Teyla greeted with a wide grin. "I thought you were busy this morning?"

"Oh, the meeting," Neeva said off-handedly. "It didn't go near as long as expected. What brings you down here?"

"Well," Teyla said, barely masking an annoyance. "After you said you were too busy to watch Torren today while I performed my exercises, I asked Marie to. So I am bringing Torren by for her to watch for a while."

Neeva grinned through Rodney's face and said, "Well, since I'm free after all, I would be happy to watch after the little guy for you."

Teyla smiled but said, "Well thank you, Rodney. But you do not have to. I know it's not something you particularly enjoy."

She shook his head and replied, "No, really. I would love to watch him for you. I don't get to see very much on him these days."

"Through no fault but your own," Teyla chastised.

"Well, I would like to fix that. Here, I'm sure I can find something to entertain him while you spend some time for yourself," she held out his hands towards the kid. Torren seemed eager to go to Uncle Rodney as he reached out for him in return.

Teyla cocked an eyebrow but gave in and released her son to who she thought was Rodney. "I suppose since you both seem to want to, I can't argue. Thank you, Rodney. I will just stop in and let Marie know that she does not have to watch him today."

"Oh, don't worry about it," Neeva said quickly. "I can tell her. You go ahead and do what you plan. I can take care of this."

Teyla gave him a bemused looked and shook her head, "You never cease to surprise me Rodney," she said. "Alright, thank you again, Rodney. I'll radio you when I finish."

"Take your time."

Teyla smiled again and stepped up to her friend. She took Rodney by both arms and leaned towards him. Neeva was glad that she had spent some time with the Athosians to know what this was or she probably would have reacted badly. But, after only the briefest of hesitations, she leaned down and touched foreheads with Teyla.

"I'll see you soon," Teyla said softly to her son before leaning back. "And you too, Rodney," she said with a smile and then turned and left.

"No, I don't think so," Neeva said softly and looked down at the child in her arms. "I think I've got enough haul to get out of here now," she said to Torren before quickly turning around and hurrying to the Jumper Bay.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Teyla, come in," Sheppard radioed after he had talked to Jennifer. He had almost altered his course to the infirmary after that talk, but decided that if Rodney had already left, there was no telling where he was going to go from there. His quarters were probably still the best place to start with.

"Yes, John?" she replied a moment later.

"Have you seen McKay today?" he asked.

"As a matter of fact, I just left him. Apparently his meeting ran shorter than expected and he offered to take Torren for me today."

This was the second time that John was brought to a standstill today. "He what?" he heard himself repeating.

"Yes, it was strange, but welcomed," Teyla said with an obvious smile in her voice.

"Teyla," Sheppard said, trying to remain calm but he had a creeping feeling that something was very wrong. "Did you ask Rodney to get more of your sleeping pills from Keller?"

Teyla took a moment to reply. It was a moment that filled John with dread because it would be the final clue that something was very wrong with his friend. "No," she said in a confused voice at the end of the pause, sending Sheppard's heart racing. "Why would I do that?"

"Where are you now?" he asked hurriedly, ignoring her question.

"On my way to the gym. John, what's wrong?"

"Where were you when you met Rodney?"

"Just outside the infirmary."

Sheppard swore under his breath and turned and started to race towards that direction. "Teyla, I don't know what's going on, but Rodney isn't acting like himself today. You need to get back there and find him."

There was another pause before she said, "I am on my way. He should still be there. He said he was going to tell Marie that she did not have to babysit today."

Sheppard wished that were the case, but he had a sinking feeling that Rodney, once again, didn't do as he said he would.

"Just hurry, Teyla. I'll meet you there." He turned the connection off as he ran and called first Ronan and told the runner to meet at the infirmary as well and then called Zelenka. "Any luck at the transmitter, Radek?" he asked.

"Sorry, Colonel. I do not know what is wrong. His is the only one that does not seem to be transmitting."

Sheppard had to keep himself from swearing again as he thanked Zelenka and told the Czech to contact him if he saw or heard from Rodney. Then he called Woolsey. "Colonel Sheppard?" Woolsey's voice asked. "Have you found our lost scientist again?"

"No, I'm afraid not. And I'm starting to get a bad feel about this. He's been running into several people and each one he's telling some different lie. That's just not like him."

Sheppard could almost hear the frown in Woolsey's voice as he replied, "No, that does not sound like Dr. McKay. Any idea where he is now?"

"He was last seen outside the infirmary." Sheppard paused as he was nearing the same location. "He found Teyla and took Torren to babysit," he told Woolsey. From the pause on the radio, Woolsey also found this news a little distressing. "I'm on my way to the infirmary now to meet up with Teyla and Ronan."

"All right, Colonel," Woolsey finally responded. "I'll let you know if we hear anything here."

Sheppard had reached the infirmary now and found both Teyla and Ronan waiting for him. He simply cut his connection to Woolsey and addressed Teyla. "Which way was he going?" he asked her.

It was obvious that she was beginning to become worried but was trying to hide it. "I do not know," she admitted with a shake of her head. "He simply said he would talk to Marie and then find something to entertain Torren."

Sheppard turned and entered the infirmary in search of the nurse. The first person he saw, however, was Keller. "John! I thought you were looking for Rodney!"

"I am," Sheppard said. "Is Marie here?"

"Ah, yes, I think so," Jennifer replied, confused at the apparent change of subject. "I asked her to run some samples to the back lab."

"Rodney has not been in here?" Teyla asked.

Keller looked at Sheppard in confusion. "He was…"

"He hasn't come back?" Sheppard asked.

"No. I said I would let you know."

"And you've been watching for him?" Sheppard insisted.

"Yes… John, what's going on?" Jennifer asked, catching on that John was upset about something and Teyla seemed worried as well. It was rare that she would see the strong Athosian woman worried about anything so this was very distressing.

Sheppard didn't answer her as he turned around and looked at Ronan. "We have to find him."

Ronan nodded as he said, "Leave it to me," as he turned and was suddenly gone from the infirmary.

"John!" Keller snapped, not liking how she was being ignored.

"Yes," Teyla said in a slightly more even tone but her own worry was bleeding through. "Please, John, tell us what it is that you are worried about."

"I don't know, exactly. But something isn't right with Rodney." He took a deep breath and told them the stories that he had been getting from everyone that saw Rodney that morning.

"Why would he be lying to all of us?" Teyla asked in confusion.

"I don't know," Sheppard admitted as he headed out of the infirmary in his own search. He was heading for the control room on instinct. It was where he was always needed when something went wrong so it seemed like a good point to start from. "Did he seem odd at all to either of you?" he asked the women.

They exchanged a looked before Teyla spoke first. "No, not really. I admit it did seem a little strange that he would be suddenly interested in babysitting when he usually tries to use any excuse to get out of it. But he has surprised me before with his caring so it did not seem too out of the ordinary."

"He was acting a little odd when I first found him," Keller admitted as she thought over the situation. "He didn't seem to know that he wasn't supposed to have access to the medical cabinet, but I didn't think much of it. He does often think that he should have access to everything here on Atlantis."

Sheppard frowned, knowing that they both were right about the excuses for his strange behavior, but it still didn't add up. Rodney didn't usually surprise with kindnesses unless something prompted him to and he was sure that Rodney had received no such prompting lately. And John knew that Rodney was well aware of medical protocols. For having little love of the science, Rodney had been sure to know everything little thing about the infirmary because it was someplace that he would often wind up.

But he kept his fears to himself. Jennifer's boyfriend was acting strangely and Teyla's son was with said stranger…

Suddenly Sheppard came to halt in the middle of the hall again. Keller almost ran into him but Teyla took a graceful step to his side and came around to stare at him. "John, what is it?"

"He hasn't exactly been acting like himself today, right?" he asked, almost afraid to hear the answer.

"I suppose that's one way to put it," Jennifer said.

Sheppard turned towards her and hated to even voice his new suspicion. "About a year ago there was a time that we suspected that you weren't acting like yourself…"

Keller stared at him not catching on to what he was talking about. It was Teyla that gasped and then said, "Neeva?"

Sheppard frowned and then nodded to her.

"No…" Keller said with a shake of her head. "No, Neeva is dead. Her associate was going to shoot her."

"But he obviously hadn't before you switched back or you never would have. Anything could have happened to her after she returned to her body."

"But why?" Teyla asked. "Why come back? And why Rodney?"

Sheppard thought a moment. "It should be obvious why come back. She's a thief and Atlantis has some pretty valuable things on it."

"But why Rodney?" Keller insisted.

Sheppard frowned and then said, "Maybe it wasn't her choice. She probably expected to switch with you again, but Rodney was the last one to mess with those stones after that whole thing. He said he thought he had deactivated them, but he might have been wrong."

"But why my son?" Teyla said through clenched teeth as she grabbed Sheppard's arm. "What use is my son to Neeva?"

Sheppard didn't have an answer to that one. "I don't know. But I think we need to find Rodney…"

"Colonel Sheppard to the Gate room!" Woolsey's voice suddenly cut into his thoughts.

"What is it?" Sheppard demanded as he resumed his running for the gate room.

"An unauthorized gate activation from this side has just occurred. Dr. Zelenka tells me that it's not connected to our system so it must be one of the Jumpers."

John put on another burst of speed as he heart sank. He'd been through this before. It was how they had lost Ford. Teyla and Jennifer were hot on his heels as he raced into the Gate room and stopped just to the side of the active gate. A Jumper was just lowering from the bay above and Sheppard's worst fears were confirmed.

"No… Rodney…" he gasped as he caught a glimpse of the pilot just before the ship launched forward and was swallowed by the gate.

"No!" Teyla screamed

"Where did he go!?" Sheppard yelled up to the control room, already knowing what their answer would be. It would be the same as it was when he asked that question six years ago.

"We do not know," Zelenka confirmed. "It was dialed by outside source."

Sheppard felt his world dissolving around him as he heard Teyla stifle a sob beside him.

"But I can narrow down the options," Zelenka continued even as he punched at his computer. "After last time, I installed a tracker. It remembers just the last ten addresses rather than fifty as most DHD's do. It will be one of those."

Sheppard found himself racing up the steps to the control room. "Pull it up!" he commanded.

"Yes, yes, I am already doing so," Zelenka confirmed.

Just as Sheppard reached the Czech, he heard his name in his ear again. "Sheppard…" it was followed by a groan.

"Ronan?" he responded back. "Ronan, where are you?" he asked as worry began to set in again when the runner didn't respond right away.

"Jumper Bay," he responded breathily. "McKay…" there was a pause. "He shot me…"

Sheppard spun around and grabbed Jennifer just as she reached his side. "Medical team to the Jumper Bay!" Sheppard called into this radio as he dragged Keller along with him in his hurry to the bay above.

"What's going on?" Jennifer demanded.

"Ronan's been shot," Sheppard told her as he rushed her to the transporter at the end of the hall. That was all the time that he had to explain before he punched the dot on the screen for the Jumper bay above them. A second later they were stepping out of the transporter in the bay.

Across the room they spied a figure slumped over a crate beside an empty docking bay. "Ronan!" Sheppard called and ran across the room.

Keller was right behind him, radioing her own instructions to her medical team.

Sheppard reached Ronan first and had to restrain the man from trying to get up. "Hey, buddy… you better stay still, all right?" he said hurriedly as he saw the blood on the floor. He traced the location where it was coming from. The left side of Ronan's abdomen seemed to be the source of the blood.

Ronan still tried to struggle to get up until Keller suddenly appeared and used her own hands to push him down. "No you don't," she scolded. "You're only going to make my job more difficult." She was placing her hands over his wound as she quickly instructed Sheppard to find something to help her stem the bleeding.

"He took a Jumper…" Ronan said.

"We know," Sheppard said solemnly as he pulled off his own shirt and ripped it apart. He handed the strips to Keller.

Ronan looked up at his and said, "He got away?"

Sheppard nodded.

Ronan let out a growl of frustration as he hit the floor with his fist.

"Hey, take it easy or you'll make it worse," Keller scolded him. "Adding a broken hand to things I have to fix is not going to help us find Rodney any faster."

"Did he have Torren?" Sheppard asked softly, fearing the answer.

Ronan grimaced as Keller switched to the cloth and applied pressure again. "I didn't see him. But I thought I heard him in the Jumper."

"How the hell did Rodney get a shot on you?" Jennifer asked as she worked.

"He was waiting for me. I had just gotten to the ramp and he slipped out from cockpit, gun ready."

"And you didn't shoot back?" Keller said.

Ronan growled again. "I didn't know I needed to be ready for an attack from McKay," he said, sounding far more frustrated with himself than anything.

Sheppard sighed and said, "We think it might be Neeva again."

That didn't make Ronan feel any better. He hadn't been caught off guard when Neeva had taken over Keller…

"It's all right, Ronan," Keller told him, ashamed of her outburst. She knew that she couldn't blame Ronan for losing Rodney. "We'll find him."

"The question is, where is Rodney?" Sheppard said.

Both of them looked up at Sheppard and he elaborated. "If Neeva was here in Rodney's body. Where's Neeva's body with Rodney in it?"

XXX

Rodney's wrists and arms were killing him. No matter how he moved, he couldn't find a way to get his hands free of the metal restraints that held his wrists behind his back. But, his ankles were a different matter. Turned out that the shackles were deemed too much and it was just rope that held his ankles together.

It also turned out that Neeva was not as smart as she seemed. The woman seemed to have thought of everything what with her goons standing by to restrain him as soon as she switched out of her body. And of course she had removed all items of defense from her person. At least, all items but the small knife that she had strapped on her hip.

She probably had even forgotten that it was there. Rodney would never have realized it if he hadn't cut himself on it as he struggled against his restraints. He couldn't help but feel wrong about feeling up another woman's thigh to get at the knife, but he figured Jennifer would forgive him since it was essentially his thigh at the moment.

"Well, hopefully," Rodney gasped to himself as he continued to struggle to get the knife free with his bound hands. "When this body gets blood poisoning from the giant slash with a knife that was last cleaned who knows when, it will be after I'm no longer in it."

He ground his teeth and tried to suppress another grunt of pain as the knife came free of the holster but cut into his thigh even deeper. "No wonder she didn't think I'd be able to use this," he muttered. "I'll have slit my… well her Femeral artery by the time I get it free."

But he managed to get it free without any further injury. He didn't dare look at how badly he was bleeding. But, truth be told, it wasn't too serious and had already slowed by the time he had maneuvered his hands over the knife that was now on the floor and wrapped his fingers around it.

"Ok, so, I have a knife. Now what?" he wondered. He looked around his small cell for inspiration. He wasn't going to be able to reach his feet with the knife in his bound hands so, really, all that struggling may have been for nothing.

"Great, I'm going to lay here and bleed to death while that woman does who knows what in my body." He let out another frustrated grunt as he rolled off of his hands behind his back onto his side.

When he opened his eyes again, he was facing the bars of his cell. At that angle, he was able to see that the bottom bar didn't quite reach all the way to the floor. He laid there and studied it a moment as he fingered the knife in his hands. "That might work…" he muttered as he struggled a moment to sit back up. That was no easy feat without use of his hands, but he managed finally.

As soon as he was up, he turned his back to the door and then used his tethered feet to scoot backward. He stopped and leaned wearily against the bars when he reached them. He sat there a moment, catching his breath but realized that he wasn't really as worn out by that whole thing as he should have been.

"Well, maybe this body isn't too bad after all… At least, for the moment." He glanced down at himself again and then quickly looked back up. "A little distracting, however," he mumbled to himself as he carefully avoided looking down at his cleavage again.

While he was carefully ignoring his own body, he leaned down and wedged the handle of the knife under the door with the blade facing in towards him. "Okay," he said after placing it. He inched away again and then turned around to face the knife. "Now, just need to slice through the rope…"

He placed his ankles to either side of the blade and pushed down while pulling his legs closer to his body again. The knife sawed against the ropes, but didn't break them. "Oh, come on," he muttered as he sawed back the other direction. It took several more passes before the rope finally frayed and then a few more when it eventually snapped.

"Ha!" he called in excitement as his feet were now free. "I did it!" He stared at his feet and then realized that he really hadn't accomplished much. "Now what?" he asked the empty cell.

XXX

"Where are we, Zelenka?" Sheppard asked as he came back down to the control room.

"I nearly have them all," Zelenka replied as he paused from his typing with one hand to nudge his glasses back up his nose. Teyla was hovering over his shoulder in a very uncharacteristic show of impatience.

Sheppard came up to her and put a hand on her arm. "We'll get him back," he told her quietly but firmly.

She nodded once but didn't say anything or take her eyes off of Zelenka's screen. "It is not just Torren," she said softly. She turned then and looked up at Sheppard. "Of course he is my main concern. But Rodney… he's out there too."

Sheppard sighed, feeling her words hit him like a brick. He knew that… of course he knew that. He had stood down there and watched another teammate vanish through the gate. But that hadn't been Rodney. That had been an imposter in his body. Rodney had been taken away sometime before that and he didn't even know.

"Both of them," he amended to her and then turned his attention back to the Czech.

"I have them," he announced just then. He pointed to his screen as, one by one, ten gate addresses appeared.

Sheppard hurriedly scanned through them, looking for one that he didn't recognize. But all of them looked familiar. He glanced at Teyla, who had a better memory for addresses then he did. Maybe he was just seeing them incorrectly.

But the slight frown on her face said that she didn't. "I do not understand," she said. "Shouldn't the place she went be one that we have not gone to recently? All of these are places we have been to recent…" but she trailed off as she pondered the screen more closely.

"Teyla?" Woolsey asked as he came up behind her.

She reached out and pointed at an address. "That's New Athos," Sheppard said in confusion.

"Yes, I know," Teyla said. "But we have not been there in several weeks. If the last ten addresses are being shown, then New Athos should not be here."

"So, you're saying…?" Woolsey started.

"Neeva went to Athos?!" Sheppard said, incredulously.

"It makes sense," Teyla said as she turned to Sheppard. "Where is the one place that is not Atlantis or Earth that Rodney, or anyone from Atlantis for that matter, could go to and be welcomed?"

"Does that mean that she's seeking refuge there?" Woolsey asked. "Neeva didn't strike me as the sort to seek out allies."

Sheppard shook his head, "No, but she would have had to get her information somewhere."

Everyone looked at him in curiosity. He sighed and faced Woolsey and Teyla. "If this really is Neeva again, she was much more prepared than last time. She knew us, where she needed to go, even that Teyla is on sleeping pills… She had to be getting her information somewhere and she couldn't have picked it all up the last time she was here."

Woolsey nodded solemnly. "I see your point, Colonel."

"But you are suggesting that the Athosians…" Teyla started in indignantly.

"No, not on purpose anyway," Sheppard was quick to stop her. "But they are traders and you have to admit that you have to develop a certain rapport with your trading partners. Neeva could have easily inserted herself as a trader that was interested in their other trading partners. It is fairly common knowledge by now that New Athos is connected to Atlantis."

Teyla frowned and shook her head, "I have to admit, that you could be correct. But I hate to think that any of my people would be so careless, especially after what happened with Michael not all that long ago. And that does not explain why she wanted my son."

"Perhaps to gain further trust of the Athosians?" Woolsey suggested. "It would seem that she… well, Dr. McKay in this case, was there on official business if he brought Torren along."

Teyla looked to Sheppard in a certain amount of hope, "Do you think that she was just going to use him as a cover? If so, surely she just plans to take him to Kanaan…"

"Let's hope so," Sheppard said and then turned to Woolsey. "Permission to go to New Athos?" he asked.

"Granted," Woolsey replied quickly. Sheppard and Teyla turned and hurried to gear up. "Bring them home, Colonel," Woolsey told them.

Sheppard paused and nodded to Woolsey. He looked over at Zelenka then and said, "You should come too, Radek."

"Me?" the Czech asked incredulously.

"Yes, we may be dealing with some technology that we haven't seen before and since I can't take my usual geek, you're it. Now gear up and meet us at the gate in five." Sheppard left then, leaving Zelenka no room to argue.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"I really should have had Sam teach me the finer points of lock picking," Rodney grumbled as he continued to blindly use his knife to force the lock on his cell door open. It wasn't his forte to be working with such a primitive locking mechanism and what made matters worse was he had to do so behind his back since his hands were still shackled.

"This can't be good for my back," he muttered to himself as he tried twisting the knife again but encountered no give. "Of course, it's not really my back…" That was another point that was making his task more difficult. His hands were far smaller than he was used to so doing things blindly was that much more difficult.

"Oh come on!" he gasped as he twisted the knife viscously again. This time there was a scraping and then the knife moved freely. It was such a surprise that the blade slipped from his grip and wound up cutting his wrist.

"Damn it!" he gasped as he felt the warm blood welling up on the surface of his skin. The knife clattered to the floor, but he left it where it fell. He clamped his other hand over the cut on his wrist and tried very hard to convince himself that it wasn't all that serious. Of course, his mind was still imagining the worst and was wondering how quickly he would bleed out if he had severed the rather important artery located there.

He turned and saw that the lock was indeed released. He nudged the door with his foot and it swung out with a grinding of rusted metal. "Well…" he marveled as the door moved. "I did it."

He stepped forward and pushed the door open further with his shoulder before slipping out. "Okay, now what?" he asked himself as he looked back and forth along the hallway. There was no one and nothing in sight. "I suppose switching back is the first thing to do. Who knows what that woman is doing in Atlantis." He shuddered at all the things that she could mess up while impersonating him. "Sheppard better notice something's wrong with me," he said to himself as he crept down the hallway and passed the row of cells. "Of course, Jennifer probably knew something was wrong right away when she went to kiss…" and he paused as he suddenly remembered exactly what had been happening when they had switched bodies.

"Oh god…" he muttered but shook his head to clear it. "Focus, McKay," he berated himself in a good impression of Sheppard's tone.

He reached the door and nudged it. He was quite glad to find that this door wasn't so much as latched completely, let alone locked. Apparently they had figured that the restraints and locked cage would be more than enough to hold him. He gave a crooked grin at how he had managed to be underestimated. Of course, they still didn't know who they were dealing with.

Rodney sighed to himself as he had to admit that he wouldn't have gotten far at all if Neeva hadn't forgotten to remove that knife from her person. And, oddly enough, that mental reminder came to him in Sheppard's voice. "Can't let me have too much ego even when you're not around, huh?" McKay said softly before he pushed the door open and left the room of cells.

He was a little surprised to find himself in what appeared to be a main section of barn. Suddenly he realized that he had just left some kind of holding pen for animals and he didn't feel so good about his escape anymore. "Great, so I've out witted a chicken," he sighed as he looked around for some evidence of where he needed to go.

There was a door to the side that he could see daylight around the edges so he reasoned that led outside. But he wanted to find the Ancient communication device that was the root of the problem and he was pretty sure that going outside wasn't where he was going to find it.

Looking around, he saw there was a short flight of steps that led up to another door. This one didn't appear to lead outside. He went over to it and climbed the four steps up to the door, wincing with every step as he couldn't prevent the boards from creaking.

He first tried nudging the door again, but this time it was latched. With a sigh he turned around and fumbled blindly with the lever a moment before he found it and slowly lifted it until there was a click and the door started swinging away from him.

The door was also incapable of silence as it moved and groaned its protest. Rodney nearly voiced his displeasure at the fact that everything was so noisy but managed to stop himself this time, realizing that maybe he could take his own advice and be quiet where nothing else would be.

When the door was open just enough for him to slip through, he did, noting that the space was quite a bit smaller then if he had been himself. He found he was now in some kind of house. He was in a breezeway with pegs for coats on the wall to his left and a short hallway that appeared to lead to a kitchen to his right. Straight ahead was an entrance to another room but Rodney chose to investigate to his right first.

Most everything in the house seemed to be coated in a layer of dust and had an old and disused air about it. There seemed to be evidence of recent living, but Rodney had the feeling that it was probably left empty for a while before that. The paint was peeling from the walls in areas and cobwebs littered the highest corners of the ceilings as if whoever had come back into the house, hadn't felt like making it perfect, just livable for the time being.

There was nothing of note in the kitchen area. He did have to tell himself that he didn't have either the time or the need to search for something to eat. The fact that he was sure he had been there for several hours and he wasn't feeling hungry probably meant this body didn't have the same issues that his had with needing food.

It was the next room over that contained something that looked familiar. It was an open, wood paneled room with a table set up in the center. On the table was a large grey and blue pyramid shaped device that was glowing.

"Gotcha," he said as he quickly crossed over to it. But as soon as he was standing in front of it, he was rudely interrupted in his examination by a shout.

"Hey! How'd you get in here?"

Rodney looked over and saw both of the men from before getting up from chairs in the adjoining room. "Sonofabitch," he said to himself as he turned and fled back through the kitchen and into the unexplored room.

He could hear the men right behind him and he found it incredibly difficult to keep his balance as he ran, both from his hand being behind his back and from not being used to that body.

He tripped as he turned the corner from the breezeway into what now was a living room set up, slamming his shoulder into the wall. He hissed in pain but ignored it and kept on. He knew the men were just behind him, yelling at him to stop or else…

He saw what appeared to be a front door and was extremely grateful that the door was open and only a torn up swinging screen door was between him and the outside. He barreled for the door and pushed his way through. Once outside, he picked a random direction and started running. There was a forest ahead, but he still had about thirty feet of open land to cross to get to it.

"Stop or I shoot!" Rodney thought the dark skinned man shouted.

Rodney nearly did stop but then he remembered that he wasn't in his body and hoped that the men remembered that too. Surely they wouldn't risk injuring Neeva's body, right?

Apparently he was right when he didn't hear any crack of gunfire or feel a burning, tearing pain in his back a he reached the woods.

"Don't shoot, you idiot," The shorter of the two men said to the other. "Neeva needs to switch back first."

"What's it matter?" the first asked. "We're just going to kill her too."

"But if she can't switch back she won't tell us where the loot is," the other reminded his associate.

"So what, we just let her get away?" the first said, indicating the direction Rodney had just disappeared.

"Might as well. All Neeva has to do is switch back and we can find her again. We'll have the doctor with us and we just wait for Neeva to get back. It's that simple."

The other nodded and put his gun away, "Yeah, makes sense," he said and then turned to reenter the house. "Let's get back to that ale then. Neeva won't be back until tomorrow anyway."

XXX

Sheppard, Teyla, and Zelenka were the first to step through the gate to New Athos. Ronan had to practically be sedated by Keller back on Atlantis to keep from walking out of the infirmary to join them. He was going to be fine, as long as he let himself heal. He was more than a little upset with himself for letting Neeva get away, yet again, in the first place but Jennifer was pretty insistent that he stay in his bed in the infirmary for the time being.

As it was, it took Sheppard some time to convince Keller to also stay in her infirmary. She was convinced that she should go with them in case something had happened to Rodney. But Sheppard reminded her that he would be in Neeva's body and probably with some of her associates who wouldn't risk harming that body. Keller finally relented and allowed them to leave without her.

Sheppard did, however, bring Major Lorne and his team as back up. As soon as they stepped through, Sheppard said, "Lorne, stay here and watch the gate. No one leaves without my say, got it?"

Lorne nodded even though Sheppard wasn't looking at him. "Yes, sir," he told his CO.

"Alright, let's move out," Sheppard said and he and Teyla moved purposefully towards the settlement. Zelenka hesitated a moment before he also fell into step behind them.

They hadn't gotten far when two people immerged from the foliage to greet them. "Teyla!" Kanaan greeted.

"It is good to see you, Teyla," Hollan said with a smile.

The smile on both of their lips faded slightly at the worry on Teyla's face. "Kanaan, Hollan…" she said quickly, lowering her weapon that she had instinctively begun to bring up when they appeared. "Have you see Dr. McKay today?" she asked as she approached them.

They exchanged a look before Hollan replied, "We haven't seen anyone from Atlantis today but the ring did come on a while ago. The watchers reported that it came on and then turned off without anyone coming through. A short time later, it came on and went off again."

Teyla exchanged a horrified look with Sheppard. "Teyla, what has happened?" Kanaan asked.

She didn't turn back to Kanaan but addressed Sheppard. "She must have cloaked and left again."

Sheppard had a grim expression as he nodded and turned to Zelenka. "Get back to the gate and start pulling addresses."

"But Colonel…" Zelenka started to protest.

"I know it's a long shot, Radek... Just do it, all right?"

Radek bowed his head and said, "Yes, I will do it." With that he turned around and returned to the gate.

"Teyla… please, what is wrong?" Kanaan insisted as he came up and gripped her arm.

She turned back to him and he was surprised to find her eyes watering. "Teyla…"

"Kanaan," she sobbed as she threw herself into his arms, clinging to him as she finally released her fear and grief.

Sheppard swallowed and stepped up to the rather confused men. Teyla was too grief stricken to even tell them what was wrong. "Kanaan…" Sheppard said uncomfortably. "Something happened on Atlantis. Dr. McKay apparently… well let's just say his body was taken over by someone else and before we realized what was happening, he escaped Atlantis in a Jumper."

"I am sorry to hear that," Kanaan said as he put a comforting hand on Teyla's back but still seemed a little confused at her reaction. "I… I know he was a close friend."

"Yeah," Sheppard said with a sigh. "We're very worried about Rodney. But, before he left…"

"He has Torren…" Teyla said softly into Kanaan's chest.

"He what?" Kanaan said as he looked down at Teyla.

"We didn't know…" Sheppard was quick to fill in.

"No, John, this is my fault," Teyla said as she choked back her sobs and stepped away from Kanaan. "I gave Torren to Rodney to babysit. I should have known something was wrong… I never should have."

"Colonel Sheppard is right," Kanaan said as he stepped up and put his arms around Teyla again. "None of this is your fault, Teyla."

As the two grief stricken parents comforted each other, Sheppard nodded his head to Hollan to follow him a few steps over. "There's something about this whole thing that is bothering me, Hollan," Sheppard said softly once they had left the other two to some privacy.

"What is it, Colonel Sheppard?"

"Neeva… That's the person we think has taken over Rodney… she knew more about us and Atlantis then she should have. When we first realized she had fled to New Athos I thought that she might have gotten her information from here."

"You think that we would betray you?" Hollan asked.

"No, not on purpose," Sheppard quickly told him. "But I need to know, have you recently come across any new regular traders? Any one that you or any of the other Athosians may have had opportunity to speak with?"

"No…" Hollan said as he gave the question serious thought. "No, I don't think we've met any new trading partners for almost a year now."

"Who is the most recent?"

"Well that would be Kira. My son has been the main contact with her," Hollan said with some pride. "He recently has become old enough to take charge of trading agreements."

"This, Kira… what does she look like?"

"I do not know. I have not seen her. I know that she represents another farming community. My son can give you the address. But I don't see how she could be who you are looking for. Jinto knows better than to give out information about Atlantis or any of your people."

Sheppard frowned. "No, I'm sure he wouldn't purposefully give it out. But I know this woman and she could have just gotten it through regular contact. And if she's been working with him for almost a year, she would have had plenty of time to gain it."

Hollan frowned and nodded slowly. "Yes, I see your point, Colonel. Let's go talk to my son."

Sheppard nodded and then went back over to Teyla and Kanaan. "Why don't you go wait at the gate," he said to her.

She wiped her eyes and looked up at him. "What is it, John?"

"It may be nothing," he said. "But we're going to talk to Jinto. There's a new trading contact he has been working with that sounds a little fishy to me."

"Then let's go," Teyla said as she straightened up and stepped out of Kanaan's arms.

"Teyla, Colonel Sheppard is correct. Right now maybe it would be better if he handled talking to Jinto," Kanaan told her gently. "You're too worked up right now and you might scare him rather than get useful information."

"I am a trader," she told him indignantly. "I think I know how to communicate to another trader."

"No," Sheppard said gently. "Right now you're a worried mother. I can handle this Teyla. I promise that we'll find your son."

Teyla nodded and then looked up to Kanaan. "Come back to the ring with me?"

He nodded and then walked away hand in hand with Teyla.

"Okay, Hollan," Sheppard said turning back to the man with a serious expression. "Let's go talk to that son of yours."

XXX

Rodney cursed again as he stumbled over another root and was sent sprawling onto his face. Of course, it still wasn't his face, but it certainly felt like it was. "Urg, I can't believe this," he groaned into the dirt. "Where the hell is Sheppard anyway?" he continued to complain as he painfully picked his borrowed body up from the ground. "He should have figured this out by now, right?"

He made it to his feet but leaned against a nearby tree for a moment. "I have to say, having a body that's in shape is great. But even Neeva seems to have her limits."

He leaned there for a little while, catching his breath and catalogued all his aches and pains for closer examination when there was the means and time. Then again, not his body, why should he worry about that? "Because it hurts now, that's why." He answered his own question and then pushed off from the tree.

He stood up and looked around, trying to figure out where to go next. He had been going through the woods for what felt like forever but really was probably closer to an hour. Wandering around, lost, on an alien planet with his hands tied behind his back was not his idea of a fun time. "Ok, so… I'm lost and alone. What's the first thing Sheppard would do?"

He started staggering in another direction again. "I'm sure he would have gotten out of these damn cuffs for one thing," he grumbled. "Then he'd probably do exactly what I'm doing but with his incredible luck, he'd probably actually find someone to help or maybe even the gate itself."

He tripped again but managed to keep himself from falling this time. "I hate to think what Neeva is doing back on Atlantis," he continued his monologue as he didn't much care for the silence. Of course he didn't really like the sound of his own voice as much as usual either.

"I hope she doesn't figure out that she can access even more of Atlantis' systems while in my body because I have the gene… Well, close enough anyway. With my luck she'll figure it out and snag a Jumper before anyone else even notices that something's wrong." He stumbled again, interrupting his train of thought for a moment.

"Of course, I had that meeting that she wouldn't know about so Woolsey would be upset when I don't show up." He stopped and swore, "Damn it… That means I'm going to have to reschedule the meeting." He sighed and then continued on.

He kept up his monologueing for a while more, not really paying much attention to where he was going beyond each footstep to try and keep from the jarring stumbling. Suddenly his latest trail of complaints was cut off when his foot encountered nothing but air. He soon found himself rapidly tumbling down a steep slope uncontrollably. When he finally came to a stop at the bottom, he laid there a moment and groaned.

There were fresh cuts all over now and he knew he had wrenched his right shoulder pretty good in his blind panic to use his arm to stabilize his decent. Blood was tricking into his left eye from a gash he had taken to the forehead as he grazed a rock on his way down.

He laid there for a long time, trying to determine if anything serious was broken. Of course he was in so much pain he tended to think so. But as he slowly moved his limbs, he didn't find any more shooting pain then before so he figured he just got very lucky.

"Damn it," he sighed as he finally struggled to sit up and take a look at his surroundings.

He was at the base of a slope that looked much smaller than it had felt as he was tumbling down it. The forest abruptly ended where the slope had started and appeared to have been cleared in the area. Everything was leveled and was clearly turned into farmland. He was closest to a large barn like structure with a fence running between him and an expanse of some kind of leafy green crop.

"Hey! Are you…?" a voice called from the other corner of the barn.

Rodney jumped and turned, trying to struggle back to his feet to run if he had to. He spied a young man coming around from the front of the barn. The man stopped what he was saying when he saw Rodney and stared for a moment.

"Nell?" he said in a hushed astonishment.

Rodney had no idea what he was talking about and took a step backward, back up the slope. But the dirt was loose and his foot slipped, sending him onto his back again. "Nell!" the man called in alarm and hurried over to Rodney.

"Oh god, Nell, what happened to you?" he said as he reached Rodney's side and reached down to help him up.

"I…" Rodney stared up at the man, realizing that he knew Neeva, but as a different name. He wasn't sure if he should play along or not. Being in Neeva's body had nearly gotten Jennifer killed the last time but this guy seemed to know and be concerned for Neeva.

"Nell, where have you been? You're tied and all scraped up. What happened to you?" the man demanded as he looked Rodney's current body over.

"I… I just got away from… from two men. They chained me…" he stuttered, not sure if he was doing the right thing by playing along, but figured if he kept it vague he could change his story when he knew more.

"Oh god, Nell… Come on, I'll get those off you." He helped Rodney to his feet and led him towards the barn. He was leaning heavily on the man as that second fall seemed to have twisted his ankle. "How long have you been back?"

"N…Not long," Rodney said truthfully. He realized that he probably didn't sound anything like Neeva. He tried to think quickly but lies were never his strong suit. Luckily the man supplied an explanation for him.

"You look pretty banged up. Are you all right?"

"No… no I don't think so… I… I'm sorry, I can't remember…"

The man suddenly stopped and stared down at Rodney. "You don't know who I am?" he asked more hurt than accusatory. "It's me, Nell, Brennon."

"Yes, ah, Brennon. Of course. I… well I hit my head…"

"I can see that, Nell," Brennon said as he ushered Rodney into the barn. "Here, sit here and I'll grab something to take those things off you." He directed Rodney to sit down on a bale of hay just inside the door.

Rodney did as told but he was nervous about all of this. Brennon obviously knew and had some kind of affection for Neeva, or, Nell as he called her. But Rodney had no idea how he should be acting as this Nell. He barely knew Neeva enough to try and impersonate her and now he was being taken for an apparent alias of hers. He had no grounds of comparison to even try and pull this off. All he had going was playing up his apparent head wound but he didn't think that would hold for very long.

Brennon returned shortly with some tools in hand as well as a towel and bowl of water. "I'll have you out of that in a second, Nell."

Rodney just nodded and leaned forward as the man worked at the shackles behind his back. "How the hell did this happen, Nell?" Brennon asked after a moment of working.

"Two men, they, ah, surprised me."

"Where? Last I heard you were traveling from planet to planet. Did you have to escape to here through the ring?"

"Um, no… I… I was at another farm when they grabbed me."

Just then the shackles came free and Rodney could finally move his arms again. He painfully moved them in front again and started to rub at his chaffed wrists. "Another farm?" Brennon asked.

"Yeah, that way," Rodney said absently as he gestured the direction that he thought the place he came from had been.

"But Nell, the only farm that way is yours and it's been abandoned ever since you left."

"Right… yes, well, it was mine. I, ah, I've been there for a while now. Just, just staying for a while."

"You were tracked, weren't you?" Brennon said sadly as he sat down next to Rodney on the bail as he picked up the bowl and towel and started to clear some of his cuts and scrapes.

"Tracked?"

"Yeah… Nell, I know you haven't exactly made an honest living since you left. Shortly after you had gone a man turned up looking for you. He said that you had done some bad things and he was sent to catch you."

"Oh, well…"

"It's all right, Nell. I know that you're a good person. You probably just got caught up in some bad things. I would never hold it against you."

Rodney looked at the man and saw that look of longing in his eyes when he looked at him. _Oh great,_ Rodney thought. _He's in love with me… no, with Neeva, or this Nell person._ "Ah, thank you, Brennon."

"I'm glad you came back, Nell," Brennon said passionately as he put the bowl down and wrapped his hand over Rodney's.

It was all Rodney could do to not snatch his hand back. This was not his idea of help that he had had in mind. But if this was what he was going to get, he had to try and hold onto it. Clearly this was a man that had been conned at some point by Neeva and had been left in the dark about how dangerous she really was. Rodney felt bad for the poor sop, but it was to his advantage to continue to play along.

"I… I'm glad to see you too," Rodney said as he awkwardly placed his other hand on top of Brennon's. "Look, Brennon. I was hoping to stay, but… But I can't. I'm… I got turned around in there. It's been a long time since I was here. Can you take me to the Star… I mean the Ring of the Ancestors?"

Brennon looked at him sadly and then nodded slowly. "Yes, Nell. I can lead you back. But, can't you stay? Just for a little while. You can hide here and rest up. You're hurt and probably shouldn't keep running. I can protect you."

"No, that'll put you in danger. And I have to get back to… I mean, I have to keep going or they will find me. Those men are looking for me now and more might be coming." He was thinking how Neeva would be turning up pretty soon as well. Of course she would be turning up in his body, but if she caught him there, she would have the upper hand if he didn't get help from Atlantis. At the very least, he had to contact Atlantis and let them know what was going on.

Brennon frowned and then said, "Okay. Let me go to the house and grab some supplies and then we can go for the ring." He stood up but held onto Rodney's hand and stood in front of him a moment. "I'm glad you came back to me, even for a short time, Nell."

Rodney was worried that the man might lean in for a kiss at that moment, but was relieved when he released his hand and left the barn. "Great… just great…" Rodney muttered as soon as he was alone.

XXX

"You can give it a rest, Radek," Sheppard called to Zelenka as he and Hollan approached the Stargate. The Czech was still working at the DHD, presumably trying to pull the addresses that it last dialed out.

Zelenka looked up and fixed his glasses but made no move to disconnect his tablet from the DHD.

"You know where she went?" Teyla asked anxiously as she stood up from where she had been sitting closely with Kanaan.

"We have a pretty good idea," Sheppard said.

"So it was Neeva?" Kanaan asked.

It was Hollan who frowned and replied, "So it would seem. The woman's description matched Kira's and Jinto did tell her more than he should have."

"It wasn't his fault, Hollan," Sheppard told him. "It could have happened to anyone."

"Where is she?" Teyla asked, cutting to the chase.

Sheppard nodded to Hollan who stepped up to the DHD and started to punch in an address. "Jinto told us and Hollan knows the address. We're heading there now."

"And we're sure that's where she went after here?" Teyla persisted.

"If not there, then it's a good start to find more answers," Sheppard told her. "Jinto assured us that she was working directly with the government of that planet to broker trade agreements which mean that it's probably her home world. It's a likely place for her to go to for now but if not, someone there is bound to know something about her."

Teyla turned and gripped Kanaan's hands as she told him, "I will bring our son back."

"I should go with you," he told her.

"No," she said, shaking her head. "You are not used to this kind of work, Kanaan. Your place is here."

"I promise to bring them both back," Sheppard said seriously as he stepped up behind Teyla.

Kanaan looked over Teyla's head and met Sheppard's eyes. He held the Colonel's gaze for a moment before he nodded his head once. "I shall hold you to that, Colonel Sheppard."

"I promise," Sheppard said once again.

Just then the gate connected and a wormhole opened. Teyla and Kanaan leaned towards each other and touched foreheads. Sheppard could see Teyla was telling him something, but didn't hear what it was. The man nodded in response and they parted.

"Ready?" Sheppard asked her. She nodded and they walked together to the gate with Zelenka and then Lorne's team filing behind them.

Kanaan stood and watched them leave as Hollan came to stand beside him. "Do not worry," Hollan said as the gate shut off. "If she says she will find him, then she will. She brought all of us back after all. We can trust her and the Lantians."

"I know," Kanaan replied. "I just wish I could be of more help. It's not right that she has to do all of this for us and I stay behind."

"It's who she is, Kanaan," Hollan said as he turned to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "And this is who you are. You are the anchor that she can always count on to return to. Without you, she would get lost out there. Your job is just as important as hers."

Kanaan nodded solemnly before turning back towards the settlement. "Thank you, Hollan. But we should get back now."

Both men turned away from the gate then and returned to their homes to await word of the mission.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Neeva was quite grateful that the kid had fallen asleep as soon as she had taken off in the Jumper. It was not as easy to fly as she had anticipated. She had heard that it was basically controlled by thought, but it didn't come very easily to her. Still, she was able to get from Atlantis without more than having to fire a shot at the big guy.

She had a feeling he was going to try and stop her again and had been ready for him. It felt good to take him down after he had been the reason she had been caught the last time.

She had cloaked the Jumper as soon as she had crossed the gate so that the Athosians wouldn't know that she had been there. So, even if Atlantis was able to figure out that was where she went when it was such a common address in their system, they would have nothing to go on from that point.

It was a quick hop to her home world from there where Jannick and Kerlin waited for her also with her body that was currently holding a one Dr. Rodney McKay.

She was looking forward to switching back not just so she could get out of this rather uncomfortable body, but so she could have the satisfaction of putting a bullet through his head. He was another thorn in her side that she was all too happy to get rid of as soon as this whole mess was over with. He must have done something with the stones after the last time, otherwise she would have switched back with Keller again and the plan would not have been in so much ruin.

She glanced back at the sleeping child on the bench behind her and smiled slightly. Of course, this turn wasn't a complete loss. Being a team member of the Athosian did seem to have a benefit of trust that she wasn't sure she would have gained in the doctor's body. If she was right, the boy would be far more valuable than anything else she could have gotten from Atlantis.

She was on her way to their hide out. It really had been pretty ingenious to hide out in her parents' house on her home planet. It had been ruled out long ago by the hit men and bounty hunters looking for her as a place to find her. She had a reputation now of having fled her lowly home and never looking back. For the most part, that was true. But when she needed a legitimate place to set up shop for an extended period of time, she could think of no better place than her actual home.

She didn't care for the memories that this place brought back to her, however, and was glad that this time she could cover the distance between her home and the Stargate in a blur rather than the trek that she had been making. But, being cloaked, she decided to take a slightly more round about path and fly over her old village.

Her home was on the outskirts, separated from the main dwellings by a strip of forest. She had had no need to interact with them in this way. She had been living there for more than a year and not a single person on her planet was aware of it. And that was how she wanted to keep it. But now, a strange rush of nostalgia overtook her and she found she wanted to at least see her old stomping grounds again.

She flew low and a bit slower than she had been as she came across the small town. But it wasn't so much the main thoroughfare that she was interested in, but rather a farm at the edge. It was just as she had remembered with the small stream bordering one end of it and the forest another. The tree that she and the boy that lived there had climbed was still there beside the house.

She took in the sight and then shook her head, clearing it of those few good memories of that time, and quickly headed back over the strip of forest to the abandoned looking homestead that had belonged to her parents.

She landed outside and had considered leaving the ship cloaked, but she wasn't sure how to find it again if she did that. So she de-cloaked and then, gathering the sleeping child in her arms and draping him over her shoulder, she exited the Jumper and walked up to the house. She could hear her associates talking loudly between them inside but their words were heavy and slurred. "I should have known," she said loudly as she stepped into the doorway to the room they were lounging in.

They jumped at the sound of her voice, both drawing their guns. "Drunk, as usual," she said and walked into the room. But her associates were still staring at her with their guns drawn.

"Who the hell are you?" Jannick demanded with a snarl.

The boy in her arms started crying at that point. "Damn it, Jannick! You woke it up."

"What the hell should we care?" Jannick said as he stepped forward and place the gun right in Neeva's face. "Who are you and how do you know my name?"

"God, you are thick, aren't you?" Neeva spat as she knocked the gun out of her face with her free hand. "This is just like last time you idiot. It's me, Neeva," she told him before his temper got the better of him.

"Neeva?" Kerlin asked as he slowly lowered his weapon.

"Hey, give the man a cookie," Neeva said as she rolled her eyes and shoved the boy into Jannick's arms. "Who else would I be? No one else knows we're here." She crossed over and plopped down heavily in the chair Jannick had just vacated.

"But, you were supposed to be in the female doctor…" Kerlin said.

"What the hell is up with the kid?" Jannick asked as he held Torren out at arm's length.

"Careful with him," Neeva scolded. "He's going to be our big payday, fellas."

"A kid?" Kerlin asked incredulously as he eyed the boy Jannick was holding.

"Yes, a kid. There is a certain person that would do or pay anything to get his hands on that kid," Neeva said smugly. "Preferably alive…" she added firmly as she noted Jannick's scowl.

Kerlin also noted it and went over and took the child from his arms. "Here, you obviously don't have kids."

"You do?" Neeva asked in surprise as she watched how well Kerlin handled the boy. "No, but I had a bunch of kid siblings that I helped mama raise," he told her as Torren settled into his arms and immediately calmed down again.

"Well, good. You're in charge of the boy then until we can find our buyer."

Kerlin frowned at this but kept his mouth closed as he sat down in his chair again and started to gently rock Torren, trying to convince him to go back to sleep.

"What happened then, Neeva?" Jannick asked as he pulled up another chair and reached for his bottle of ale he had been drinking from before she showed up.

"Well obviously things didn't go quite according to plan," she said as she rolled her eyes and then told them an abbreviated version of what happened. "…And then I turn up here and find you two getting drunk…"

"We didn't expect you until tomorrow," Jannick said as way of excuse.

"Yeah, well, we need to get moving now. Go collect my body and let's get this thing switched so we can kill him and move on. It won't be easy, but there is a slight possibility that the Atlantis people could trace me here…" she stopped as she noticed the glance between the two men. "What?"

"Well," Kerlin started.

"He got away," Jannick said flatly.

"He what!?" Neeva snapped as she jumped up and glared at them.

"He couldn't have gotten far," Kerlin quickly said as he attempted to calm the now agitated Torren down again. "It was only a few hours ago."

"And he was still chained," Jannick said without really seeming to care. "We figured you could just switch back and then we'll kill him for you and wait for you to get here."

Neeva glared at them as she said, "You idiots. We both need to be here to properly switch if we don't want to go destroying the device again! And besides, you have no idea where or in what condition my body is in and you want me to just switch back? What if he ran right into someone that recognized me? What if he's already been sold to a bounty hunter? Or worse, what if he made it back to the ring and has contacted Atlantis?!"

Jannick snorted and said, "You said that no one here would remember you and as for the ring, it's a long ways away. He couldn't possibly have reached it yet."

"Well we're going to find him," Neeva said as she walked across the room and turned around in the doorway to glare at them. "Now! I will not switch back when I have no idea where my body is and I would prefer not to have to destroy a valuable piece of Ancient technology! Got it!?"

Jannick stood up and glared back at her. "That will take too long."

"It wouldn't have if you two hadn't let him escape in the first place. Now get up off your asses and let's go."

"What about him?" Kerlin asked as he stood and nodded at the squirming toddler in his arms.

"I guess you're just going to have to bring him with now, aren't you?" Neeva told him and then turned and walked out of the house.

"Maybe we should just kill her now…" Jannick muttered.

"No, we don't know who the buyer is for the kid and what if she didn't get anything else?"

Jannick growled as he stuffed his pistol in his holster and followed Neeva outside. "He better be as valuable as she says," he said, walking out of the house with Kerlin close behind, still carrying Torren.

XXX

Rodney sat in the barn, waiting for Brennon to return, hoping he was making the right choice. "Really, what other choice do I have?" he asked himself. "I need local help and I have a feeling that this guy isn't going to be so forth coming if I'm not who he thinks I am. And I doubt he would even believe me if I did tell him the truth."

He stood up then and started to pace. As soon as he did this, however, he was reminded that he twisted his ankle in the fall. Why he hadn't really noticed before to mentally catalogue the issue, he had no idea. He attributed it to not being used to this body as he sat back down and started to rub the ankle.

"Oh, come on," he muttered to himself as he realized what he was doing and felt a little awkward. "This is your body for the time being… you better just get used to that."

He returned to massaging his ankle, hoping to ease the pain enough to be able to make whatever trek was required to get to the gate. As he was doing this, he heard a faint sound somewhere outside that he immediately recognized.

"A Jumper!" he gasped as he released his ankle and jumped up, ignoring the pain completely. "It's about time, Sheppard," he said as he went to the door and opened it. Just as he was stepping outside, however, the sound of the Jumper's engines became fainter as if it was speeding away. His heart sank when he realized that the sound was moving in the direction of where he had come from.

"Oh no," he muttered as he took a step back inside. "It's her… she got a Jumper… There's no way they would know where she is, not like that. It has to be her…"

He stepped further inside and started to pace again, ignoring the fact that he was limping with each step. "But what if it is them? What if they figured it out already somehow? If I go there and find it's her, then I'm screwed. But if I go for the gate and it's them, I'll miss them."

He stopped his pacing and thought a moment. "Of course, I'd still make it back to Atlantis where it would be easy to contact them and let them know where I am. So the result would be the same and I wouldn't be risking walking into a trap with Neeva."

He sighed and continued on, "But if they do know how to switch our bodies back, she might just do that, expecting to be able to walk back from wherever I am and those goons could just shoot me as soon as I'm in my body again. Great… just great…"

That was when the barn door creaked open again and Brennon slipped back inside. "Here," he said as he came over to Rodney. "Sit back down and I'll finish cleaning your cuts before we go."

Rodney sighed and instantly made up his mind. Shaking Neeva's head, he said, "No, there's no time. They're getting closer. We need to get moving." He had a sinking feeling that he might be staring down a barrel of a gun in his own body at any moment and the sooner he got out of there and got help to switch back, the better.

Brennon looked a little hurt by this but nodded. "All right, whatever you say Nell. Let's go, okay?" he held out his arm for Rodney to use as support as he obviously noticed the limping.

Rodney was a bit hesitant but decided he might as well accept help where it was given, no matter what the motivation might be. "Yeah… yeah, let's get moving," he said as he took the arm and leaned on Brennon as they headed out of the barn.

"It's a long way, you know," Brennon said to him as soon as he headed alongside the fence to the field. "You remember that, don't you?"

"Yeah… I mean, sort of… it's a bit, ah, blurry still. How long do you think?"

Brennon looked him over from the corner of his eye before saying. "About an hour's walk, normally. But we'll have to take the wooded path if you don't want to be seen and with your ankle…"

Rodney sighed. "Yeah, closer to two or more then. Great…"

"I'll get you there, I promise, Nell," the young man said firmly. "You know you can trust me."

"Yes… Yes, I'm sure I can," Rodney said, uncomfortably. The truth was he didn't know this but he didn't really have a choice. If bounty hunters had already come looking for Neeva, there was no telling if this guy was just planning on handing her over and collect a reward rather than help. But he seemed honest enough and it was painfully obvious that he was completely smitten.

_Sheppard's going to love this…_ Rodney thought bitterly.

XXX

"Alright, Lorne, set up a perimeter at the gate," Sheppard said as soon as they arrived at their destination.

"Yes, sir," Major Lorne replied.

"Teyla, Zelenka, and myself will head into the town and see if anyone knows about Neeva, or, as she went by with the Athosians, Kira."

"Ah, Colonel," Zelenka said as he stepped forward. "I do not usually go off world. Maybe I should…"

"You're coming with us, Radek, end of discussion," Sheppard said and set off for the town.

"Yes, ah, Colonel," he replied as he hurried to keep up with Teyla and Sheppard. "But, ah, why? I am not used to other worlds. Not exactly comfortable out here and I am not Rodney…"

"No, but you're the next best when it comes to alien tech," Sheppard said without looking back or slowing his pace. "And if we do come across Neeva and whatever she used to switch her and Rodney, we're going to need you to figure it out to switch them back."

"Yes… Yes I see that. But, would it not be better to find out if I am needed and then radio…"

"Time could be of the essence, Radek," Teyla told him. "It is better to have you nearby in case of an emergency rather than allow a chance to slip by us because we had to wait for you to join us."

"Yes… Ok, I understand," Zelenka relented and dropped back to follow in the other two's wake.

Teyla slowed slightly so she was shoulder to shoulder with him. "Radek, I know that this is not your usual position and it is rather difficult for you. But we really need your help with this. I… I cannot thank you enough for facing this with me."

Radek looked up at her and nodded. "Yes, I am sorry, Teyla. Of course I want to help. Both for your son and for Rodney."

"Thank you, Radek," she said with a kind smile and a slight squeeze of his arm before she then hurried to catch up with Sheppard who had plowed well ahead of them. Zelenka hurried as well, but remained behind them as they went.

It was only a few minute's walk before they arrived at the edge of the local village. "Ok, Teyla, take Zelenka and start asking around over that way. I'll head the other direc…" he broke off as a man who appeared to be slightly better off than the others around approached them.

"Greetings," he greeted them with a smile. "Welcome to Ardole. Have you come in search of trade?"

Sheppard brought them to a halt as he approached the man and took off his sunglasses. "Not exactly," he told the man. "I'm Colonel John Sheppard, this Teyla Emmagan and Dr. Radek Zelenka from Atlantis."

The man seemed to take a closer look at them as he said, "Atlantis? You are the Lantians that we have heard tell of of late?"

Sheppard glanced at Teyla and then back at the man as he said, "That's probably a yes, though I don't know what it is that you may have heard of us."

"Just that you live in the city of Ancestors and have come to have great influence in our galaxy now. I have even heard that you have done battle with the Wraith…" he spoke the last line with a measure of awe.

Teyla stepped forward and said, "What you have heard is correct. The people of Atlantis have battled and often defeated the Wraith."

"If that is so, what brings you to our humble village?"

"We're looking for a woman," Sheppard said. "We know her by the name of Neeva, but we heard that you may know her as Kira."

The man glanced over at a woman that was approaching them. They made a nervous eye contact before the woman nodded and walked away. "Ah, yes, Kira. She is known to our village. Of what need do you have of her?"

Teyla pushed herself in front of Sheppard then before he could answer. "She stole from us," she said bluntly. "She came to Atlantis and took some of our technology and kidnapped my son!"

The man took a startled step backward at the sudden onslaught. "Kira? No, I find this hard to believe."

Sheppard stepped up then and put a hand on Teyla's arm. He gently pulled her back as he stepped forward again. "Look, we've had dealings with her before and we know that she is both a thief and a con. She's tricked us twice now. We just want to find her and ask her some questions."

The woman was returning now with another in tow behind her. The man glanced back and then stepped aside, gesturing this new woman to stand beside him. "This is Alna; she has worked closely with Kira now for over a year."

The woman nodded her head to them and said, "You have word of Kira?"

"We were hoping that you could tell us of her," Sheppard said feeling his mouth pull into a frown. This didn't sound as promising as he had hoped.

The woman shook her head, "Kira has not returned to us for some time now."

"Who is she?" Teyla demanded. "She has been speaking with my people on behalf of your village. How is it that you do not know where she is if she is your chief trader?"

The man sighed before he said, "We hired her to speak for us. We are a humble farming community and it just seemed that we did not have a knack for trade. Kira came here, seeking refuge from something that she did not name. We offered her hospitality and when she wanted to do something for us in return, she discovered that we had been allowing our trading partners to take advantage of us. She offered her skills as a trader and we have been profiting from them ever since."

"When did you last see her?" Sheppard asked as he had a feeling where this was going and it wasn't something that would help.

"Two weeks ago," Alna replied. "She left here to deliver goods to one of our partners, but never returned. We feared that something had happened to her."

Sheppard winced as he heard Teyla stifle a sob behind him. "You haven't seen any ships come through the gate recently, have you?"

"Gate?"

"The ring of Ancestors," Zelenka finally offered up.

The man shook his head, "No, no ships have come."

"And you haven't seen anyone else around here that doesn't belong?" Sheppard pressed, hoping to find something of value here.

The man started to shake his head but Alna spoke up. "There was that man that came with Kira once."

"Man?" Sheppard asked quickly, latching onto this new clue.

"Yes, he was tall and dark skinned. I had been on a walk looking for certain herbs that only grow near the Ring when Kira came through with this man. They were talking for a moment but I didn't hear what they said. Whatever it was, the man seemed angry and he left through the Ring as Kira walked towards the village and left before anyone else saw him."

"Did you happen to see where this man went?" Sheppard asked, fearing that this was as far as this little clue would take them.

But the woman surprised him when she nodded her head, "Yes. I could see clearly from where I was, though I do not believe that they knew I was there. I can remember the sequence to where he went."

"Can you tell us?" Teyla quickly asked.

The woman hesitated a moment.

"Please," Teyla said as she came up to the woman. "She took my son and a very dear friend of mine is in danger as well. Please, please help us…"

The woman looked up into Teyla's worried face and then nodded, "Yes, I see that you truly believe Kira is responsible. I have had my doubts about her since that time I saw her with the man, but I never thought her possible of this. Still, if I can be of help to you, I will do so."

"Thank you," Teyla breathed as she hugged the woman.

"All right," Sheppard said after only a second, eager to get underway again. "Let's get moving then, shall we?"

Teyla and Alna broke apart and they turned and led the woman back to the gate.

XXX

"Nell?" Brennon asked as he continued to help Rodney stumble through the woods. "Where have you been?"

Rodney wanted to roll his eyes but knew that he really had to play up the guy's love struck thing. _God, why me?_ He thought to himself.

"Sorry, Brennon, I don't think you really want to know," he said finally. That was probably the truth, after all. This poor sap had no idea who Neeva really was and it was going to be in Rodney's best interest not to fill him in.

Brennon sighed before he spoke again. "I know you've gotten into trouble Nell. And really, I can't blame you. You had every right to take off as soon as you could and I know it can't be easy out there on your own like you were. So, I don't blame you for mistakes you might have made. I just… I just wish you might have come back… I… I thought that we, at least, had been friends."

_Huh, maybe he isn't as clueless as I thought_, Rodney thought. "I… I didn't want to get you involved," Rodney tried to improvise.

"You know that I would have been there for you Nell. I always was. Even when it was just your parents that you needed to hide from."

And that brought Rodney up short. "My parents?" he asked.

"Don't pretend, Nell… not to me. I know you tried to play good for the rest of the village because you thought no one would believe you, but you know I know how they treated you. I guess I'm just surprised that you actually waited until they died before running."

"Died…" Rodney muttered as he allowed Brennon to get them walking again.

Brennon shook his head and said bitterly, "Served them right, drowning like they did after everything they put you through."

Rodney was silent, not sure what he could possibly say now. Apparently, Nell was the real Neeva, for all in tense of purpose. This was where Nell had grown up and this, apparently, is where she grew up with a rather crappy childhood. This much, Rodney could relate to. But he didn't turn out to be psychopathic, master thief, con artist, cold blooded killer that Neeva had become. If Brennon only knew about that…

"You know, a lot of folks around here thought you did it," Brennon said with a soft chuckle. "Not that I would have blamed you if you did. It was odd that they would have both drowned in that lake when they knew how to swim. But, even if you did, I don't care Nell… I just wish you could have talked to me before you ran."

_Could this chick do no wrong for him? What the hell?_ "I… I didn't want to be… ah… reminded anymore. I needed to get away," Rodney said feeling a little uncomfortable with the parallels that he was being forced to draw between his life and Neeva's.

Brennon sighed, "I understand. I'm just glad that you still trust me Nell. I'm glad to at least get to see you again," he looked at Rodney and smiled.

Rodney nodded and tried to force a smile on his own lips for appearances but he was sure it came out more like a grimace. "Are you ok, Nell?" Brennon suddenly asked as he stopped them. "Is it your ankle?"

Rodney quickly nodded but said, "Yes, but it's alright. Let's just get to the Ga… Ring. Those men could be following."

Brennon laughed slightly as he forced them to stop. He made Rodney sit down beside a tree as he reached down to inspect the injured ankle. "You know as well as I do that we're the only ones that know this area. All those stupid ghost stories in town have kept nearly everyone out of these woods for years. You don't have to worry about those men being able to find these paths."

Rodney frowned but kept his mouth closed. He knew that it probably wasn't the men that he had to worry about, but Neeva. If Neeva and Brennon were the only ones that knew those paths, then Neeva was certainly going to be able to track them. "We really can't afford to stop," he tried to tell the young man. "It's too dangerous… I… I don't want to see you hurt."

Brennon looked up and smiled again. "Why Nell, I didn't realized that you cared so much," he said teasingly, but quickly returned to examining the ankle.

Rodney felt beyond uncomfortable with the guy probing at his, but not his, ankle. It seemed far more familiar than just a cursory examination and he wasn't sure if he should call Brennon out on it or not. On the one hand, he really didn't know how familiar Neeva and this guy had been so she may have just belted him for this. On the other…

_Oh crap,_ Rodney thought as Brennon stopped his examinations and started to run his hands up the leg gently while leaning forward. _Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap,_ Rodney chanted to himself as he watched in horror as the man neared his face, lips starting to pucker.

Rodney was leaned back into the tree as far as he could go and still had no idea what he should do about this situation when suddenly voices in the distance startled both of them.

"Crap," Brennon said, echoing Rodney's earlier thoughts as he quickly leaned away and stood up.

"We need to move," Rodney said as he braced his hand against the tree and used it to stand up again. He muffled a groan of pain as he moved, causing Brennon to turn back quickly and wrap his arm around him for support.

"Easy Nell. We can avoid them, no problem," he told Rodney as he started to lead them on.

Rodney cringed as he listened to those distant voices and was fairly sure that he could hear his own. _Crap, she is here… Then why the hell didn't she switch us back already?_ But, then again, after what had nearly happened to Neeva's body last time that she had done the body swap thing, it wasn't all that surprising Neeva would be reluctant to switch when she didn't know what condition her body was currently in.

"We have to stay away from them," Rodney said vehemently.

"We will," Brennon assured as he led them down another, nearly overgrown, path. "Don't worry Nell, even if they find us, I won't let them hurt you."

Rodney clamped his mouth closed. He felt horrible that he was involving this man in the whole affair. What made matters worse was Rodney was taking advantage his obvious feelings for Nell… Neeva. But he saw little choice here and he couldn't exactly expect Brennon to continue to protect him if Neeva did find them. _She is sure to recognize Brennon and she may even be able to convince the guy that I'm an imposter. No, I have to make sure that they don't see us._

"Come on… I know where we can hide until they are gone," Brennon said, pulling them into some deeper undergrowth.

Rodney didn't know if this was a good idea or not. If this was something that Neeva already knew about… But Rodney also saw little choice. The sounds of approach were getting closer and with his (her) ankle, there was not going to be any running for it in the near future.

Brennon led them through some dense bramble and undergrowth before coming upon a hidden grotto. "Remember this, Nell?" he said with a grin as he pulled Rodney along to the scattering of rocks that surround the small body of water. There was a cleft in the rocks that was just big enough for the two of them to scrunch into. "A little tighter now, though," Brennon said as he settled inside and drew Rodney close to him.

Rodney swallowed hard and tried so very very hard not to be completely disturbed by this whole situation. He was failing rather miserably at that.

"How the hell did he know about this?" Rodney's actual voice, muffled by the surrounding stone, reached them in their hiding place as they heard the distant crunch of booted feet on the stones.

"Maybe he was just lucky," one of her two stooges muttered.

And then Rodney heard the soft mutter of a child. _The hell?_

"Shh, keep that thing quiet," Neeva snapped.

"He's a toddler; there isn't exactly an off switch, Neeva!"

_Toddler? Why the hell do they have a kid with them?_

Suddenly the sound of feet stopped moving but the sounds of the child only grew louder. "Dr. McKay," Neeva suddenly called out. "I know you're here, doctor. I have someone here that you might like to see."

The kid suddenly wailed and started crying in earnest. "Someone that I picked up from Atlantis on my way here."

And Rodney felt not his stomach drop out from under him. A toddler… Atlantis… "Torren…" he muttered as he suddenly added it up. Why Neeva would have taken Torren was beyond him, but that was the only kid on the mostly military base.

"Come on out, doctor, and I promise not to hurt you or your friend's kid."

"Shit," Rodney whispered as he started to move towards the opening of the cleft.

"Nell?" Brennon whispered back as he grabbed on tighter. "Don't… It's not you they're…"

"It is, Brennon…" Rodney snapped back. "Now let go." He shook out of Brennon's grip and scrambled out of their hiding place. "Stay there," he whispered back as he left the young man behind. He stumbled out and then used the rocks to help him stand. "Neeva!" he called out.

Neeva had already spotted him. "Ah, good to see that you haven't been too hard on my body then," Neeva said as she eyed him. "Though it's not in as good of condition as I had left it." She was holding the crying Torren but the baby seemed unharmed.

"I'm here, Neeva, now leave Torren out of this."

Neeva smiled and said, "I don't think so, Dr. McKay. This kid's the most valuable loot that I have ever gotten. But, that does mean I don't plan on letting harm come to the little squirt at least." She handed Torren back to one of Kerlin then and drew a gun.

"You're not going to shoot me," Rodney said with a laugh. "It would be just like suicide."

"No?" Neeva said with a grin that looked all kinds of wrong on Rodney's face. "I thought that getting your girlfriend's face might be good for a change. It would be a great way to hide. But your face… No one will ever suspect who I really am underneath."

"Oh trust me," Rodney said with a roll of his eyes. "You don't want my face. There are any number of nasty things in this galaxy that would love to see me dead, or worse."

Neeva sighed and said, "Yes, I suppose that is true. But don't think that I won't shoot you somewhere less permanent if you try anything, doctor."

And that was when Rodney heard a gun cocking. But it wasn't Neeva's. Both Neeva and Rodney looked behind her then and just had time to register that the Jannick was aiming his own gun at Rodney in Neeva's body.

"We've got the kid, Neeva, we don't need you anymore," he said and then squeezed the trigger. Not even bothering to look to see the results of his shot, he turned the gun on Neeva and fired again. But Neeva had dropped out of the shot and fired her own gun, catching her now former associate squarely in the head just before he dropped.

Torren was screaming now at the noise and the other man was trying to quiet him even as Neeva turned to aim her gun at him. "Now what?" she asked him. "Are you going to betray me as well?"

"I didn't know, Neeva," Kerlin protested.

"Brennon," Neeva's voice spoke behind her, causing her to glance back and gasp.

Rodney was awkwardly lowering Brennon's bloodied body to the ground as his legs gave out under him. "You idiot," Rodney admonished him. "Why the hell did you do that?"

"I… I promised, Nell… I promised you wouldn't be hurt."

"Brennon?" Neeva muttered as she completely forgot about the potential threat behind her and turned all the way around to witness this.

"Nell… I'm sorry," Brennon whispered to Rodney as he placed a bloody hand on Neeva's cheek. "We shouldn't have stopped… You wanted to keep going… I should have listened…"

"Sh," Rodney said as his smaller than normal shaking hands tried to put pressure on the seeping wound in Brennon's chest. "No, just… lie still… You'll be ok… I'll… Damn it,"

"No, don't worry about me… Just… just get out of here."

Rodney didn't know what to do. This man was dying because he had saved him under false pretenses. He thought he had saved the woman he loved, but he hadn't.

"McKay," Neeva said in a half voice, causing Rodney to look up at his own form. Neeva had lowered the gun and was staring at the scene with far more emotion than Rodney had ever given the thief credit of being able to produce. "Do this right," she nearly growled at him.

Rodney swallowed and then nodded. "Brennon… I… I'm sorry to get you in this."

He gave Rodney a weak smile and wrapped his raised hand up into the long locks that Rodney was currently wearing. "Please, Nell… Just… just let me know…" he whispered as his chest started to stutter on his breaths.

Rodney swallowed hard but then allowed Brennon to pull his head down to him. He closed his eyes and tried to think of Jennifer. He tried to think how this might be playing out if it were him on the ground, bleeding, with Jennifer having to watch. She, of course, would know more what to do to try and stop it. But she wouldn't balk at a goodbye kiss either if it was obvious that she couldn't do anything.

With his eyes closed, Rodney felt his small, too soft lips, touch the larger, cooling ones beneath him. "Goodbye, my Nell," Brennon whispered and then his hand went limp, falling to the ground.

"Goodbye, Brennon," Neeva spoke through Rodney's voice as she came to stand over the now motionless young man.

"Neeva…" Rodney said as he struggled to his feet.

Neeva continued to stare blankly at the dead body for a moment longer before she snapped fierce eyes on Rodney and brought her gun up again. "You son of a bitch," she practically snarled at him.

"I didn't shoot him!" Rodney exclaimed as he raised his hands and struggled to get back to his feet.

"You used him! You let him think you were me and now he's dead!"

"And what the hell did you think you were doing in my body?!" Rodney snapped back furiously. "I don't suppose you walked up to Teyla and told her that you weren't me and, 'oh, by the way, can I borrow your son to make an extra buck?' You used me to kidnap a toddler!"

Neeva glared at Rodney a moment and then waved her gun, "Get moving. The sooner we switch back, the better," she said.

Rodney stood there a moment before asking. "What about Torren? What could you possibly want with him?"

"Me, nothing," Neeva said as she reached out and grabbed Rodney by her own arm and propelled him back the way they had come. "But there is someone out there that would pay a small fortune to get his hands on that kid."

"What? Who…" and then it hit Rodney as he started to stumble where he was being led. "Michael," he whispered.

"That's right," Neeva said. "The not as deceased as once thought mongrel Wraith. He's been looking for Atlantis you know… still wants his hands on the kid. He's going to be my big payday it would seem."

"Neeva," Rodney said rapidly even as they began to limp back through the woods. Kerlin seemed to be fine with the turn of events and hadn't so much as moved to draw a weapon on Neeva. Apparently it had been a one sided mutiny. Or maybe he had just decided to see which side would come out on top. "You can't trust Michael. As soon as he has Torren, you're dead."

"I think I know how to deal with untrustworthy business partners, doctor," she said with a snort. "Don't worry about that. Right now you should worry about whether or not I'll bother to let you live after we switch back."

Rodney swallowed hard at that thought but there was little that he could do right now when Neeva had a gun and control over Teyla's son.


	5. Chapter 5

_A/N:Ok, here's the end. There is another sequel that's started and outlined, but I make no promises on when that'll be out but we will actually finally see Michael. Other than that, thanks to those who have read and reviewed and I hope you all enjoyed it._

Chapter 5

A gate set in a clearing of a forest burst to life and quickly deposited three travelers. "Perhaps it would have been better to wait for Major Lorne's team to be ready before we arrived," Teyla was saying half heartedly to Sheppard as they descended the stairs that led down from the gate to a packed dirt path. "It should not take them long to acquire the Jumper on Atlantis and meet us here."

"Did you want to wait, Teyla?" Sheppard asked as he scanned the area around them.

Teyla pressed her lips together a moment and then shook her head. "But I do concede that it may be prudent. I do not know much of this planet, only that it is another farming community. We have no way of knowing what we may be walking into here, John."

"Well, I can tell you one thing that is here," Radek spoke up from behind them. Sheppard and Teyla turned to see him looking up from his tablet. "A Puddle Jumper."

"What?" Sheppard asked as he closed the gap between them and peered at Radek's screen as if he could tell what it was he was looking at.

"See this?" the Czech said as he pointed at something on the screen. "A power spike with Jumper signature. Neeva must not know how to power down properly or how to leave it cloaked."

"That is not surprising," Teyla said. "It is not something that many in this galaxy would know. The only reason she can control the Jumper is because she is in Rodney's body."

"Which means that we are at least on the right trail," Sheppard said. "She's here and most likely has Torren. Now, let's just hope that Rodney is here too," he concluded as he turned down the path and started to head out.

"Ah, Colonel," Radek called, causing Sheppard to stop and face him again. "The signal, it is coming from that direction." He pointed straight out from the gate towards the dense forest rather than to the left where the path led.

Sheppard followed the line that Radek was pointing towards and scrutinized the tree line. "Can you lead us directly to the Jumper?" Sheppard asked.

"John, we don't know what's in there," Teyla said softly, though her usual voice of reason was less potent today as she was clearly torn between taking the more expedient, but possibly more dangerous route rather than the safer path.

"You said it yourself, Teyla," Sheppard said to her. "You don't know this planet. For all we know, going through the village could be just as dangerous if the locals aren't fans of outsiders. Might as well take the shortest path and avoid that possibility."

Teyla frowned but nodded. Sheppard turned and headed in the direction that Zelenka had pointed towards. Teyla was close behind him and Radek, rather reluctantly, brought up the rear. He muttered to himself in his native language about Rodney owing him after this one.

XXX

"You do realize that I don't actually know how to reverse this without destroying the device, right?" Rodney asked as he was marched in front of the other two with guns back towards the farmhouse.

"I won't need your help with that, Dr. McKay," Neeva told him. "I've already figured that part out. Found some instructions in the lab where I came across this device. Took me a little longer to find someone to translate it for me, but I know everything I need to now."

"You… What?" Rodney asked, turning around and looking at her. "You found an Ancient lab? In tact?!"

Neeva grabbed Rodney's shoulder and spun him back around, nudging him onward with her gun. "It was a bitch, let me tell you," she said. "At first I thought that I might be able to sell its location to Atlantis for a hefty price. But, remembering how you all tried to screw me over last time…"

"You hadn't been on Atlantis five minutes before you stabbed Zelenka! I think that we were right to not trust you!"

Neeva continued on as if she hadn't been interrupted, "I came up with a new plan to pay back the favor. I know a whole bunch of buyers out there that would love to get their hands on Atlantis equipment and medical supplies. I had _thought_ that, if I switched places again, it would be with Keller. If I had known that I'd be stuck with _your_ crappy body, I might have had second thoughts about this."

"Hey!" Rodney squeaked indignantly.

But Neeva glanced back at the now sleeping child in her associate's arms and said, "But, it turns out this is going to be an even bigger payday than I had thought."

"You don't know Michael like we do," Rodney quickly said. "He'll kill you and take Torren. He's dangerous and devious. If you go through with this, you're going to wind up very dead."

"No more dead than you're going to be if you don't hurry it up, McKay," Neeva said as she nudged him in the back again with the gun.

"Hey! I'm going as fast as I can with your twisted ankle. You sure you want to push me and make it worse!?"

Neeva shrugged. "It'll heal. I'd rather that we hurry up and get there so we can get off this dump of a planet."

"Isn't this your home world?" Rodney asked.

Neeva tensed up before saying, "It was… once. But I left here and have never looked back."

Rodney snorted. "Until you needed a place to hide out, that is. And what was that with Brennon back there? Seems like there was at least someone that you regretted leaving."

Suddenly Rodney had his currently slender body pressed up against a tree as Neeva pinned him there and glared down into his eyes. "You were the one that involved him. His death is on your head, doctor. Just remember that when we switch back because I certainly won't forget."

Rodney started to tremble. It was the oddest thing to be threatened by his own face and voice. He had no idea that he had such potential to be so frightening but, right now, he was completely scared of himself.

"Now," Neeva practically growled, shoving him off of the tree. "Get moving."

XXX

"John!" Teyla called out from her position slightly ahead of them. Sheppard hurried up to meet her and stepped out into a clearing where a small pool surrounded by a rocky shore was hidden. He stopped as soon as he saw Teyla kneeling over a body.

He felt his insides freeze as he couldn't yet see who was lying on the ground in front of Teyla. _Please don't let it be Rodney,_ he thought fretfully as he hurried over to stand above Teyla.

He let out a slight sigh when he realized that he had no idea who this young man was.

"This is recent," Teyla said as she pulled her hand back from the body. "An hour old at most."

Sheppard nodded and scanned the area with his P-90 raised and at the ready. He noticed another body then not very far away and moved over to investigate. Zelenka stumbled into the clearing at this point and stopped when he saw Teyla standing over a body and Sheppard moving towards another.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Bodies,"' Sheppard responded. "No one we know," he was quick to inform the scientist as he gave a cursory examination of the dark skinned man at his feet. "Teyla says that it was recent, however."

"And what does that mean?" Zelenka asked.

"Don't know," Sheppard said. "It may have nothing to do with us."

"Knowing Neeva, however…" Teyla said as she stood up again.

Sheppard nodded with the unfinished statement. "Yeah, this kind of smells of her. We should keep moving."

Zelenka sighed behind them as he followed behind them.

XXX

"Inside," Neeva said as she gestured to the door of the old farmhouse with the gun. Rodney wanted to protest, but couldn't see a way to do so safely. He stepped through the door but heard Neeva speaking to her associate as soon as he had. He stared into the house, wondering how the hell he was going to get out of this one when a gunshot suddenly rang out behind him.

He spun around in dread as Torren's cries pierced his ears. He stood there, frozen as he took in the sight of Torren cradled against Neeva's shoulder and the other man lying dead in a growing pool of his own blood on the front porch. "Wha… Why?" Rodney stuttered.

Neeva turned around calmly and pushed Rodney further into the house. "I doubt very much that the Jannick was working alone. Kerlin was just a little smarter on his timing. Better to take care of the problem now before he could figure out how to cross me later."

"He… he was your ally!" Rodney snapped.

"No, he was a business partner and a potential threat," Neeva said, still forcing Rodney through the house.

Rodney turned as they stepped into a room and he could hear the hum of Ancient technology nearby. He was looking at the Ancient communication device again, but this time, instead of hope, he was filled with dread. If they switched back now, he was, no doubt, going to end up like that poor sap on the porch very soon.

"Ah, look…" He spoke rapidly. "Are you sure about this? I mean, Ancient can be very difficult to translate. If you've got this wrong, who knows what could happen?"

"Shut up and move," Neeva said as she shoved him closer to the device. Rodney had little option. She had the gun and she was holding Torren.

"Pick it up," she said, gesturing to the stone that was lying on the table beside the device. He noticed that an identical stone was already inset in a slot in front of him. "Are you sure you know what…?"

"Pick it up and put it in beside that one!" Neeva snapped as she placed the gun down on the table. "It's the one from Atlantis," she said. "Found it in your lab. Thanks for that because when they're both in, next to each other and then removed at the same time, the connection is broken."

Rodney eyed the gun on the table but a sudden cry from Torren drew his eyes away from it. Neeva had pulled the child from her shoulder and was holding him out in her arms and with one hand, grabbed the back of his neck. "I'm sure he's worth more alive," she said. "But we both know that, with Michael's cloning abilities, it won't be necessary."

Rodney blanched as she saw that she was threatening to snap Torren's neck. "Ok, ok… Just… don't, alright? I'll do it." He reached out and took a hold of the stone and put it in the next open slot.

Neeva reached out for the other but Rodney pulled his hand back and said, "Ok, wait… what guarantee do I have that you're not going to kill me?"

"None," Neeva said as she glared at him. "But you can be sure that I will kill the kid if you don't do this right now."

Rodney sighed and then reached out for the stone again.

"On three; and no tricks," Neeva said, making sure that Rodney could see that she was ready to hurt Torren in at a moment's notice.

Rodney swallowed and then nodded. He closed his eyes and reached out for the stone. He felt his fingers curl around it. "One… Two… Three," he heard Neeva count and he obediently pulled the stone out.

There is a white out behind his eyes then just before he found himself back in his own body looking at Neeva in hers. He glanced down at the gun on the table but could see that Neeva was far faster and he was holding Torren now so his hands were encumbered.

Neeva's hand closed over the gun as Rodney turned while clutching the squirming and crying Torren to his chest. He heard the hammer clicked back on the gun as he dove for the floor under the table, making sure to cover Torren with his body as completely as possible while doing so.

He could hear shouts and booted feet down the hall, but he didn't even have time to process what that meant before there was a deafening roar and a searing pain in his shoulder. But he didn't feel the pain for very long, though, because there were more angry shouts at the door and then everything went black.

XXX

Sheppard moved carefully and quietly up to the porch of the dilapidated farmhouse. He could see another body was lying at the top of the stairs and he needed to make sure that this one wasn't his friend's body either. He felt relieved again when he saw that it's another stranger, but this can't bode well for Rodney if Neeva is killing off everyone involved in this.

He sensed Teyla just to his right and behind and then could hear voices inside the house. One was definitely Rodney's and one is the sound of a crying child. "Shit," he said and then hurried inside. "Rodney!" he called as he rushed down the hallway, Teyla close behind him, calling for her son. He was pretty sure he could hear Zelenka enter the house behind her, but his heart nearly stopped at the point when he heard the gunshot.

Somehow, Teyla had moved passed him and rushed into the room first. He heard her shout something as he rushed in, Wraith stunner drawn, just behind her. He saw the slight Athosian woman leap at Neeva's body, knocking the gun out of her hand and quickly pinning her to the floor. Sheppard noticed Rodney's form huddled under the table with the Ancient device. Not knowing for sure who is who, he quickly stunned the scientist and turned the weapon towards Neeva.

"Teyla!" she gasped. "Teyla, it's me! Rodney! Thank god you're here! She has Torren!" Neeva's voice rambled as she waved a hand towards Rodney's body.

Teyla started to move but Sheppard put a hand on her shoulder. "No, we don't know. I'll check," he told her and quickly went over to where he could still hear the muffled whimpering of a child. He knelt down and noticed that there was blood trickling from a grazing shot on Rodney's shoulder. It was probably quite painful, but nothing life threatening.

He reached down and rolled Rodney over, and found Torren clutched to his chest, squirming and crying out from all of the commotion but otherwise appearing completely unharmed. "It's okay," John said gently as he reached out and plucked the child from Rodney's arms. "Shh, it's okay…" he repeated.

"John?" Teyla asked as she looked back over her shoulder.

"He's fine, Teyla," Sheppard assured her. "Just shaken up a bit."

Teyla choked back a sob before turning back to Neeva. "I should kill you right now," she practically growled at the woman under her as she brought a knife to her throat.

"Teyla!" she practically squeaked. "It's me! I've been trying to save Torren. She was going to hurt him when I managed to get the gun and shot her!"

Just then Radek appeared in the doorway. "Radek, can you tell who's who?" Sheppard demanded as he stood up, holding Torren in his arms. The boy was calming down now and his cries were becoming soft hiccups.

Zelenka looked around with wide eyes at the scene and then ended up staring at the device on the table. After a second, he nodded his head once. "If it is still active, then they will still be switched, I believe," he said, moving into the room and towards the table, pulling his tablet out.

Teyla turned then and looked over at her son now cradled in Sheppard's arms as Zelenka moved passed her to the device. Suddenly, Neeva shifted under Teyla, throwing her up and over her head while grabbing the wrist with the knife in it. The thief wrenched the knife from the Athosian and launched herself at the distracted scientist. Before Sheppard even realized what had happened, Teyla was crouched on the ground with her pistol drawn on Neeva while the thief was using a rather terrified Radek as a shield, holding Teyla's knife to his throat.

"Hi there," Neeva said softly to Radek. "I remember you. This isn't the first time that you've been this close to something sharp and pointy."

Radek had no verbal response to the woman but Sheppard could clearly see the fear on his face. "It's okay, Radek," Sheppard said. "She can't hurt you without getting herself killed in the process," he continued with a nod towards Teyla.

"Hand over the kid or you're going to see a repeat of our last meeting, Colonel," Neeva demanded as he pushed the knife a bit tighter to Radek's throat.

"John…" Teyla practically growled as she stood and tightened her grip on her gun.

Sheppard waved a hand at Teyla to try and calm her down as he asked, "Why do you want him so bad? What use could you have for a kid?"

"That kid is my meal ticket, Colonel. There is a certain party that would pay handsomely for that kid. But, if you're good, I would imagine that I could get nearly as much for just a vial of his blood. Play nice and I promise I'll return the kid and your little scientist…" she shook Zelenka slightly. "…To you, unharmed."

"You aren't going anywhere," Teyla said. "And certainly not with my son."

"Then you can just watch your friend bleed out for all I care," Neeva said as she pulled Zelenka's head back with one hand and reached up to press the blade of the knife just under his ear against his throat.

"No!" Sheppard shouted. But, just as Neeva started to press down on the knife, a blast of light burst from just behind Sheppard, catching both Radek and Neeva in its wake.

Teyla dropped her gun and rushed forward as they both began to crumple to the ground and caught Neeva's hand, making sure that she didn't slice the scientist's throat as they fell.

Sheppard spun around then and saw a shaky McKay blinking up at him from the floor where he was kneeling, still holding the Wraith stunner up that Sheppard had dropped when he retrieved Torren.

"Rodney?" Sheppard asked.

McKay looked up at Sheppard and blinked before he slowly nodded, "Yeah… yeah, it's me," he said breathlessly. "Radek?" he asked, raising his voice slightly to address Teyla.

"He is fine," Teyla assured him as she checked him over.

She stood then and quickly came over to Sheppard, reaching out for Torren. Sheppard was quick to hand the child over to his mother and turn his attention on Rodney. "You alright?" he asked worriedly as he knelt down in front of him.

"I…" Rodney blinked again and then his face crumpled in pain as he quickly brought up his left hand to the back of his right shoulder. "Ow!" he exclaimed when he touched it and pulled back a hand covered in blood. He stared back at Sheppard with huge, fear filled eyes. "I've been shot!" he gasped.

"Easy, Rodney," Sheppard said, reaching out and steadying his friend as he started to sway. "It's not that bad, just a scratch, really."

"Oh god, I'm gonna die… I knew it, I'm gonna die on some backwater planet in the middle of nowhere…"

"You're not going to die, Rodney!" Sheppard said forcefully. "Now here," he said, reaching into his vest and pulling out a pressure bandage. "Hold this on your shoulder while I go make sure Neeva doesn't wake up and get away. Or hurt anyone else. Got it?"

Rodney nodded dumbly at him, taking the bandage and holding it on his shoulder but he was far from silent about voicing the pain that it caused him and he still looked as if he wanted to pass out any second.

Sheppard rolled his eyes and stood up to see Teyla cradling her son tightly to her chest with one arm while still covering Neeva's unmoving body with her pistol.

They exchanged a nod before Sheppard went over and pulled the woman a little further away from the other scientist and then proceeded to pull out zip ties to secure her. Teyla holstered her gun and went over to kneel beside McKay. "The Jumper," Rodney muttered where he was sitting. "She brought a Jumper here. It must be around…"

"It's just around the corner of the house, Rodney," Sheppard told him. "Zelenka brought us here by tracking its power signature. We'll all be on board in a minute and back to Atlantis. But I'd like to make sure that this psycho isn't going to wake up and pull another stunt on us again on the way, alright?"

Teyla distracted McKay from snapping back at Sheppard by lightly touching his arm. "Rodney," she said softly, pulling his attention to her. "Thank you."

He stared at her in confusion as he said, "For what?"

"For taking care of my son," she said with a smile as she lightly squeezed his arm and then released him. "You were shot protecting him, were you not?"

"Wha… oh… yeah, I guess I was," he replied as if it didn't even occur to him. Teyla smiled broadly at him and then stood up. And turned back to Sheppard. "John, are we ready to get out of here?"

"More than you know," Sheppard said as he finished securing their prisoner. "Let's go home."

XXX

"Ow!" Rodney snapped as Keller finished stitching up his shoulder.

"Rodney, don't be such a baby," she huffed as she tied off the last stitch. "It's numbed, you can hardly feel it."

"I told you, I don't take well to anesthetics, and I can completely feel you stabbing me repeatedly with that giant needle!"

"Is he complaining again?" Sheppard asked as he walked into the infirmary and up to the bed Rodney was sitting on.

"He wouldn't be my Rodney if he wasn't," Keller said with a smile.

"Oh, ha ha," Rodney grumbled. He looked to Sheppard then and asked, "What did you do with Neeva?"

"She's in the brig," Sheppard replied. "Woolsey is deciding whether to turn her over to a planet that is looking for her to try in Pegasus or send her to Earth to be dealt with."

"My vote is Pegasus," Rodney grumbled. "We already know several places where she's looking at the death sentence."

"Rodney…" Keller said in a disapproving tone.

"Well she deserves it," he snapped back. "We know that she's a killer and now we know that she's a kidnapper too! What more do you want!?"

Keller frowned again but returned to finishing up cleaning and covering her stitches without saying anything else.

"There is one more thing to consider," Sheppard said. "She knows how to get in touch with Michael."

Rodney looked up at Sheppard sharply. "You're actually thinking about making a _deal_ with that woman?"

Sheppard rubbed the back of his neck nervously saying, "Well, it is good intel to have. We can't just let Michael stay loose out there. Who knows what he'll get up to?"

"And if we get him, who's to say that he doesn't have another clone waiting in the background?"

"So you want to let him roam free in Pegasus?"

"Of course not! But maybe we shouldn't trust the information of a known con artist to get to him!"

"Hey!" a gruff voice snapped from across the room, pulling their attention from the argument to Ronon who had been half sleeping in the bed over there. "Do you two have to nag while I'm stuck here and can't leave?" he asked them.

They both frowned as Keller stepped between them, now finished with her work. "This is something to talk about later. Right now, Rodney, you're fine, but you should probably rest for a little while."

She turned to Sheppard without waiting for her boyfriend to reply. "And John, stop antagonizing my patient and disturbing others," she glanced over at Ronon who had rolled over and closed his eyes again.

Both men, seemingly thoroughly chastised, turned slightly away from each other as Keller sighed and left them alone to look into other things. Rodney scooted back onto the bed and lay on his side, facing away from Sheppard.

Sheppard glanced back at him and then came up to stand over him. "You know," he said with a grin. "I hear Cadman is coming in on the Daedalus next trip. I'm sure she would _love _to hear about your experience being stuck in a _woman's_ body."

"Oh that's just low," Rodney snapped as he reached up and chucked his pillow at Sheppard's head. This, of course, pulled at his stitches and made the shot go wide, missing the Colonel completely and drawing a hiss of pain from his lips.

Sheppard simply laughed at him and retreated from the infirmary before Keller could complain to him again about disturbing her patients.


End file.
